The Joys of Possession
by YukiwaFuru
Summary: Time-travel.Naruto travels back to the past with Kakashi's aid, but how will he deal with being sealed in Kakashi's younger self?Not to mention meeting his father and trying to save everyone...who knew just going along for the ride could be so difficult? Discontinued.
1. Technical Difficulties

Well, here's the first chapter of my first fic. It's a little shaky, so I might eventually rewrite it, but it'll do for now. Anyway, hope you like it.

Disclaimed.

Naruto sat in the Hokage's office in conference with the Godaime Hokage and Kakashi after finally recovering from his battle with Sasuke. Shizune and Sakura would have been there but with the Fourth Great Shinobi War nearing its height, their skills were needed elsewhere. He had sustained serious injuries in his "final" confrontation with Sasuke including a nasty hole through his liver courtesy of Sasuke's Chidori-covered katana and a pinky that he'd had to lop off when it got caught by shrapnel from a tree that'd been first set on fire by Amaterasu and then blown up by a Chidori...yeah, lame way to lose a finger. After that he'd had some trouble making hand-signs and had to rely on Sage Mode by summoning clone after clone from Myobokuzan. Sasuke then had no choice but to rely on Susano'o and it became a contest to see who could keep it up longer. In the end Sasuke had barely been able to survive Naruto's final Rasenshuriken and they both dropped their ultimate techniques in near exhaustion. Sasuke sought to use the last of his chakra for Kirin and Naruto, realizing that he had very little time, directly attacked Sasuke, hoping to get into range to knock Sasuke out before he got fried. Of course, Madara chose that moment to pop up and rescue his pawn before he could be captured or killed. After Madara escaped with Sasuke, Naruto had the dubious pleasure of learning first-hand that lightning will usually strike the highest thing in any given area. Which, after the surrounding forest had been completely demolished, happened to be Naruto. He did have a bit of luck on that disastrous day though, the lightning bolt chose to enter his right shoulder, thankfully not destroying his brain or coming into direct contact with his heart. Although he received severe burns along the lightning's path through his body and his heart stopped, he received no immediately fatal organ damage.

He was also fortunate that despite orders to the contrary, Sakura had stayed somewhat near the battlefield with Hinata keeping track of the battle's progress. The moment Madara took Sasuke, Sakura was moving and arrived just in time to restart Naruto's heart, keep him from bleeding to death from the wound in his side and even reattach his pinky which had somehow not been incinerated and announced its presence by bleeding through Naruto's pocket; all in all, not bad for a day's work. They took turns carrying him on the way back to Konoha where he remained unconscious for a week while Tsunade herself supervised his treatment. That's how he ended up in the Hokage's office giving a report of his clearly unsuccessful and nearly fatal attempt to beat some sense into Sasuke.

He had realized an important fact after his battle with Sasuke; Madara wouldn't let anything happen to his tool until he had served his purpose. Whether that turned out to be some weird possession jutsu like Orochimaru used or merely a disposable body to synch with Gedo Mazo, absorb the last of the tailed beasts and channel their chakra into Madara's ultimate genjutsu remained to be seen. But one thing was clear, as long as Madara lived it would be nearly impossible to recover or kill Sasuke and as long as Sasuke remained free there was always the chance that Madara's plans might eventually come to fruition. As a result of this observation, Naruto's new goal in life was to kill Madara. A worthy goal, but the question was how? This was the question the three strongest ninja in Konoha found themselves discussing on such a beautiful summer's day.

"The reason no-one can touch the bastard, literally, is because of that damned time-space ninjutsu, right? So all we have to do is disrupt his jutsu and then we'll pound his ass." Naruto suggested abruptly ceasing his pacing.

"Uh, Naruto, that's a little easier said than done. Do you even know how time-space ninjutsu work?" Kakashi said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, but you do, right? Can't you use that dimensional thingy you used on Deidara on Madara too?" Naruto said excitedly.

"His time-space ninjutsu is far more advanced than mine. By the time I could get a lock on him and activate the jutsu he'd be long gone. With time-space ninjutsu it's all about activation speed. If the opponent can escape before the jutsu is activated, then the jutsu becomes a pointless waste of chakra. Even Deidara managed to completely escape Kamui once. It'd be foolish to think that I could catch a master of time-space ninjutsu in it so easily." Kakashi pointed out.

"Well then what about a distraction?" Naruto sat down across from Kakashi looking at him intently.

Kakashi went on as if Naruto hadn't spoken, "Even if I could catch Madara in my jutsu somehow, his would easily overpower mine and he would escape. Besides, he wont let himself fall into a trap easily. He has decades of experience on us and has proven to be extremely cautious in revealing himself."

"So at the first sign of trouble he'll cut and run." Naruto stated grimly.

"Hm, that about sums it up." Kakashi said in a bored tone.

"Then how are we going to kill the fucker?" Naruto leaned forward fiercely, eyes blazing. Kakashi merely looked back at him calmly.

"The only way would be to disrupt him in the performance of his jutsu, or better yet to subvert it in such a way that it backfires on him, but like I said, that's easier said than done."

"Urgh, so now we're back at square one?" Naruto jumped up from his chair and resumed his pacing. "Are you saying there's no way to kill this guy?"

"No, but..."

"Enough, you two." Kakashi and Naruto turned to look at the Godaime, who had been sitting quietly for most of the conversation. "Sit down Naruto." Naruto complied, albeit somewhat sullenly. "Kakashi, you're the closest thing to an expert on time-space ninjutsu that we have, do you have any ideas?" She asked interestedly.

"Well, I really only know the basics needed in order to use my jutsu..." Kakashi said somewhat sheepishly, "The Yondaime was the real expert."

"So what are we gonna do?" Naruto groaned.

"Did Minato leave any notes on the subject Kakashi?" Tsunade asked, ignoring Naruto completely.

"Yes, I was planning to take a look at them later and see if I can come up with anything." Kakashi glanced at Naruto, "I think it would do Naruto some good to see them too."

"Ok, you heard him, Naruto. You two are to study the Yondaime's notes and try to find a way around Madara's jutsu." She looked at Naruto, "It'll be good practice. If you really want to be Hokage, you'll have to at least be able to get the jist of ninja research so that you can understand any problems that might arise with it. That's part of the reason why Sarutobi was such a good Hokage. His widespread knowledge allowed him to judge what the best options were in any given situation and act accordingly. You don't need to do the same, but you do need to at least be able to make sense of the knowledge your subordinates provide you with and use it properly. All right, get to work you two. Dismissed."

Naruto started to stomp out with Kakashi in tow grumbling about stupid lectures and only stopped when he heard the Hokage speak again, "And Naruto..." He turned around to look at her. "I know you're not good with this sort of thing, but we don't have a lot of time, so suck it up." Her face softened. "But there should be a few journal entries with your father's research and you're free to look at those as well."

Naruto brightened immediately. "Un!" He then took off out of the window only to pop back in a moment later. "So...which way?" Kakashi shook his head ruefully and they set out, Kakashi in the lead.

"Ano gaki..." Tsunade shook her head while chuckling. "Somehow I pity the ANBU guards he'll have after he takes office...their job will be closer to babysitting than anything else." She glanced at the paperwork and smiled at it for the first time, albeit a bit evilly. "Can't wait to see the brat's face once he finally realizes exactly how boring being Hokage is..." With that she sighed and reluctantly got back to work.-

Naruto shook his head vigorously to clear the cobwebs but only succeeded in getting slightly dizzy and even more confused. He didn't understand any of this, not one bit. He'd been going through his father's notes for a while and the novelty of reading things written by his dad was fading fast in the face of massive incomprehension. There was this stuff about the relevant seals used in various time-space ninjutsu and how each one molded the chakra in such a way as to "align" with the surrounding area, utilize chakra's "natural affinity" (not nature affinity, apparently, how goddamn confusing can a person be) for itself to establish an anchor at a chakra source at some other predetermined point and "pull" oneself along the segment of the "time-space line" that you've "sectioned off", all the while maintaining the correct angle on the "time-space graph" so you don't accidentally end up following one of the various other "lines" in space-time that connect you with your target. Because apparently doing that can land you in some really weird places. And if that crash course wasn't enough to blow a gasket in Naruto's head, there were other things to consider, like the chakra masses present in the vicinity of the "line" that could disrupt the process dangerously if they were close enough to "bend" ones trajectory and the possibility of running into a "pocket" dimensional space or getting pulled into another dimension that happens to have the same chakra target yours has. Naruto couldn't understand how something that he's done his entire life (namely moving through space-time) could be so difficult. Apparently even something as simple as existing for a while and moving around could get you into really treacherous territory if you strayed off the beaten path without a map. So considering the dangers involved, perhaps it's not surprising that his father's study was filled with notes on the relevant mechanisms and methods involved in this arcane area of ninjutsu. That's not including the notes on the complicated process of transcribing the hand-seals needed for the various time-space ninjutsu into flowing and functional seal arrays. Yeah. The place was a dusty mess as well.

Naruto finally gave up leaning over the desk looking through the papers Kakashi was reading and rocked back on his heels. "Kakashi-sensei, what the hell is with this wording? 'align...natural affinity?' Huh? Isn't this shit complicated enough without using such a weird-ass way of describing things? Do you have any idea what he's talking about? You said my dad was a genius, right? So how come nothing he's written makes any sense?"

Kakashi looked up, slightly annoyed, "You're one to talk, Fukasaku-sama mentioned that whole soft-serve/sage chakra analogy of yours."

Naruto looked offended, "Hey, that wasn't me, that was Gamakichi. Although it was a good analogy..." Naruto said thoughtfully.

Kakashi sighed, "Look, I know it's pointless to expect you to understand this, but can't you be quiet so that I can? Your dad's journals are in the top drawer. Take one and occupy yourself."

"No goddamnit, we have more important things to worry about, like figuring out how to kill Madara. Besides, are you saying you actually understand this stuff? Then explain it to me." Naruto said stubbornly.

"It's ok, I'll work out a way to stop Madara. Besides, whatever we do will probably rely on my eye..." Kakashi pondered. "So take the time to learn a bit about Minato."

"But what I need to understand him, what he left me is actually this stuff, right? I already know what kind of person he was, how much he loved my mom and me and Konoha. I wont let Madara ruin all of that. And the answer to stopping him is here somewhere. I'll help you find it." Naruto stated matter-of-factly while calmly looking into Kakashi's uncovered eye.

"Naruto..." Kakashi began warningly.

"Explain it to me, Kakashi-sensei, I'll help. I promise." Naruto said, a determined gleam in his eyes.

Kakashi sighed again, "Alright. First you need to understand about chakra and how it interacts with space-time. There was no need for him to reference or keep track of such basic information, so it isn't in his research notes. All chakra has a distinctive individual signature and that's what's used in chakra detection. One of the useful results of this fact is that chakra can be made to detect itself in much the same way that it can detect foreign chakra. So using that fact, as long as you know its location you can mold your chakra to detect and connect with another source of chakra with the same signature as yours and..."

"Wait, wait, I have questions." Naruto interrupted. Kakashi cocked his head, waiting. "Usually you can't detect chakra that far away, so how can you do it if you're far away? And does it work with different chakra; why does it have to have the same signature? Also, how does the connection work?"

"Umm, one question at a time. Let's see, because the chakra is doing the detecting with the aid of the jutsu; usually you're just using chakra-enhanced senses." Kakashi explained.

"So you can use jutsu to detect chakra far away?" Naruto asked.

"Ah, yah, why are you so surprised? Anyway, you have to know where the chakra is to use the jutsu outside of your sensing range, which is why people don't use it much. As to whether you could use someone else's chakra as your anchor, it wouldn't be advisable, because time-space ninjutsu sort of merges the target chakra with yours, that's how it works. It would also take a lot of chakra to perform the jutsu since the two different chakra would repel each other. As to how the connection works, it's because chakra is indivisible. It's your energy, so in a way you're already in both places at once, or a part of you is, anyway. The jutsu moves you from being in two places to only one. Well, forming the connection is difficult; chakra bends space-time, so if you can align your chakra to nature's chakra you can force you and your anchor to meet." Kakashi finished speaking and looked at Naruto, waiting for a response.

Naruto looked puzzled for a moment before quickly asking, "How does that work?"

"Hmm, one way to think of it is to view space-time as a fabric. You and your target both sink into it as a result of your chakra-mass. The more you align your chakra with the natural chakra around you the further you sink because of the extra weight attached to you. The fabric of space-time is actually very elastic, so you stretch it with your weight and then pull yourself to the anchor with your connection." Kakashi looked at Naruto calculatingly, wondering if he'd understood anything he'd just said.

Naruto thought for a few minutes about this, all the while with a slightly constipated look on his face. "Un, I think I understand, but then what's this line thingy about?"

"That's a little thing called a heuristic device..." Naruto scowled deeply and Kakashi chuckled. "It's just a way to describe the path you take, if you can call it that."

Naruto frowned and narrowed his eyes in concentration. "Oh. Then what about the time-space dia-thingy?"

"That's a bit more complicated. Basically it's a way to represent what path you follow to your target." Kakashi looked at the papers pensively. "Course?" Naruto asked. "Yeah, there are actually a lot of paths you can take through space time to arrive at one point." Kakashi looked back at Naruto with an amused expression on his face, knowing that what he was saying would cause confusion. "Huh? How?" Naruto said blankly. "Space-time's curved, so there are several ways to get from one point to another. However the paths aren't the same. A chakra mass can exist in several different dimensions at once since dimensions can overlap with each other or even contain each other. In the same way, because of the connection we discussed earlier, chakra can exist in several different places "at once" only in different points in time. Depending on whether your path is moving more through space or more through time, you could end up somewhere completely unexpected." Kakashi said warningly.

"...Umm, could you give me an example?" Naruto said with his brows knit together and his mouth slightly agape.

"Hmm. Sure. One path will move you through space and nearly keep time static. That's the path the Fourth took when he used his Hiraishin and involves moving at the speed of light. Another path would bring you to the same point in another dimension although it's hard to compare the change in time because time often flows different in other dimensions. Yet another path wouldn't move you from your current location but would move you into the future a bit... The possibilities are nearly endless, which is why it's important to take the right path." Kakashi shrugged.

"Doesn't that mean that you could travel back in time, too?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Sure, but there's resistance since time doesn't travel that way naturally. Sort of like trying to make your blood flow backward. Well, it would take an impossible amount of chakra, which is why no-body's tried it before." Kakashi sighed. "Now, I've taught you the basics, why don't you go to Ichiraku while I work on a way to defeat Madara?"

Naruto nodded distractedly and walked out. Kakashi sighed, 'finally some peace' he thought and got back to the scroll he's been reading.-

Naruto only made it to Ichiraku's after nearly running into a pole, knocking over a granny and tripping over his feet several times. It'd be fair to say that he'd never been so abstracted before, but he'd had an idea and didn't want to lose it. When Kakashi told him that going back in time couldn't be done because of an insufficient amount of chakra he'd immediately thought that he could do it. After all, the only source of chakra in the world greater than Kyuubi would be Juubi.

Even with only half of Kyuubi his chakra was still more potent than Hachibi. It seemed that due to the difficulty of splitting up Juubi's chakra, Kyuubi originally ended up with the most malevolent chakra, with the rest of the creature's malice spread out between the other bijuu. Despite Madara's efforts, without the Kyuubi he'd never be able to recreate a creature as powerful as the Juubi, especially considering that the yin half of the Kyuubi's chakra was still sealed inside the death god. Although it would undoubtedly be enough for his purposes. The point, of course, being that if anyone could do it, it would be him. Maybe he'd ask Kakashi what he thought about it later.

Naruto greeted Teuchi and Ayame in their temporary ramen stand and as he was starting his third bowl of beef miso ramen, he looked up to see Sakura sitting down next to him. She looked unusually weary, with bags under her eyes and her pink hair hanging lank down to her shoulders. She ordered chicken soy ramen and watched him hurriedly slurp up the noodles that were still hanging part-way out of his mouth. "What's up, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

"I'm taking a lunch break from my shift at the hospital. It's so busy, though, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get away." She said tiredly.

"Wow, you're working really hard, Sakura-chan. Make sure to rest every once in awhile." Naruto glanced at her worriedly.

"Don't worry, I do, besides with the war on, everyone else is working just as hard. And you're one to talk. You were still in the ICU in critical condition a few days ago, but now you're jumping around like nothing happened. You're recovery is amazing and I'm sure only part of it is due to Kyuubi, the rest is sheer stubbornness." She laughed. "Geez, have a little shame will you, you really scared us there for awhile! I thought I was gonna have a heart attack when I saw you lying in the middle of all that destruction..." She trailed off with a strained and slightly pained look on her face.

"Sorry I worried you so much Sakura-chan." Naruto said somewhat solemnly.

"You should be, baka..." She started on her normal tirade and then suddenly sighed and deflated a bit. "It's not your fault Naruto, " She began seriously, "I know you gave it your best out there, it isn't your fault things didn't get resolved, I'm just glad you're still alive." She ended kindly.

Naruto stared at her with slightly wide eyes for a second. For Sakura to not lecture him like that meant she was extremely tired and although she clearly didn't blame him for the situation it had gotten to the point where she just wanted things to be finished with Sasuke. The idea of him still out there threatening the safety of her loved ones was clearly haunting her and she just wanted it to be over and done with already so she could mourn and move on.

For his part, Naruto suddenly felt extremely guilty. He probably could have finished the fight with Sasuke much faster and killed him, but he had wanted to fight Sasuke to the end...not to mention that he was willing to kill both of them to show Sasuke that he was wrong. He finally realized what that would do to Sakura, though, she'd somehow manage to blame herself for the whole mess and never get over "failing" to help her two teammates or even one of them. She clearly understood that Sasuke was beyond any normal help, but she wanted to at least save Naruto and watching him risk his life against Sasuke over and over was taking its toll on her. That and being constantly surrounded by death and suffering as all medic-nin are.

His respect and sadness for Sakura went up considerably. Why hadn't he noticed before? That ridiculous confession and her attempt to kill Sasuke, as well as her resigned and yet desperate look ever since she realized that she wouldn't be able to take direct action to help with the situation between Naruto and Sasuke all made sense now. She was just doing anything in her power to hold onto what was left of her team, her family.

Naruto decide then and there that he was going to change things. He didn't want to watch the people he cared about suffering anymore. If he could pull out the roots of this war before it even started he would give anything in exchange. Suddenly he had the sinking feeling that he understood exactly how Itachi had felt.

He turned to Sakura, "Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'll find a way." He gave her a serene and gentle smile, not at all like his usually toothy grins. "I better get back to work. Later." With that he gave her a small wave and dashed off.

She looked after him with a small, slightly sad smile and a relaxed expression, thinking how much like a full-grown Shinobi he had seemed just then and how little like the immature boy she remembered. Then she blinked and gasped. She spun around and stared at Naruto's bowl wide-eyed. He'd put his money down without her realizing it, but that wasn't what caught her attention. He had left his bowl at least half full, something she'd seen him do only a handful of times, only when he was extremely depressed or the stakes were incredibly high and time was ticking. She could tell this was an example of the latter case and looked after him worriedly. 'I hope he's not planning anything stupid' she thought nervously.-

Naruto was meditating on one of the fourth's stone curls that were reasonably flat. Since mastering Sage Mode, he'd discovered that meditating was also a good way to speed up his (admittedly slow) thinking a bit. Kakashi-sensei had said that to perform a time-space ninjutsu, you need an anchor, so... his younger self? But there were a few problems with this idea. Going back in time to his weak younger body didn't seem like it would accomplish much. It wouldn't be early enough to stop some of the worse things that Madara had done and by the time he managed to regain enough strength to really put up a fight he'd find himself in the same situation he was currently in; not impossible, but pretty ugly. On the other hand, if he could find a way to go back to before he was born, then fighting wouldn't matter much. Strategically dropping hints could be enough to delay Madara's plan by another decade or more. There'd be the added difficulty of dealing with the Kyuubi attack, though. And if he wasn't careful then his friend's and him might never be born, especially him. Urgh. On the other hand, any of them would gladly give their lives to change things, and even if nobody else remembered them, he would. Yeah, he'd deal with the Kyuubi attack and his and the others' births when that became a problem, for now, he would just do what he knew to be right and hope that it would work out in the end.

The more pressing issue, however was what he could use as an anchor in the time before he was born. And even if he could think of a usable anchor, he'd have to choose a specific time somehow and invent a time-space ninjutsu when he'd never used one before. Right. No problem. Ok, he needed help, badly. The only one who knew enough to help him was Kakashi and he'd need convincing...wait. Kakashi. Kakashi had the knowledge and experience to come up with a jutsu and help Naruto perform it. On top of that he had that eye of his, which would undoubtedly help. Finally, Kakashi was born several years before Naruto, if they did the jutsu together, Kakashi's chakra could probably serve as an anchor. As for when... Kakashi had told him about how his father had committed suicide while he was at the academy on the day of team assignments. Kakashi said that Sakumo had probably intentionally waited until Kakashi was officially a ninja so that he could support himself as an adult. If he could go back to that time maybe he could save his sensei's father as well as have a few years to prepare for the Kyuubi's attack. It was worth a try, at least.-

"Absolutely not. Have you lost your mind?" Kakashi asked, his mouth visibly hanging open under his mask, his lone visible eye wide. "It can work, but I'll need your help." Naruto stated flatly. They were standing outside the Namikaze mansion, arguing. Naruto had gone to convince Kakashi and lured him out of the mansion with the promise of buying him dinner. Kakashi had realized something was up, but still been shocked when he heard Naruto's idea.

"You don't know that, you know practically nothing about time-space ninjutsu. What you're suggesting is too dangerous to even consider. Even you might die of chakra exhaustion attempting such a jutsu and we have no idea how your chakra would meld with mine even if the jutsu was successful. If anything went wrong we would both die and there'd be nobody left to deal with Madara. Not to mention the fact that your chakra and consciousness might just drain off after arriving. If anything went wrong and you ended up somewhere unexpected, you'd have no way of getting back. Also, you'd probably never get your body back, if your younger self was even born. And even if everything else worked out, you might just end up changing things for the worse. This is the stupidest idea you've ever had and that's saying something." Naruto didn't think he'd ever seen Kakashi so unhinged in his life but he was adamant.

"If you're worried about how the chakra would meld together then seal my consciousness and transfer the seal only. That should be easier anyway. As for your other worries, I wont tell anyone what's going on except your younger self, your father cause he'd realize something was going on anyway and Sandaime-jiji. That should be enough to start changing things. I wont tell my parents until I'm conceived, and I'll even promise not to keep my dad from sealing Kyuubi if it comes to that. I can probably get my father to transfer the seal to my body after I'm born and have my chakra merge with my younger self over time. I'll be careful and wont interfere with your younger self most of the time. I don't want to do anything obvious that will alert Madara, so I'll try not to change anything too major. At most I'll try to save a couple lives, get Tsunade back to the village to found her medic-nin school, give Jiraiya a few tips so he can better keep an eye on Atatsuki's activities, warn the Sandaime about the Kyuubi attack and make sure Orochimaru gets dealt with before he can join Akatsuki. And maybe, maybe if I can get involved without alerting Madara, I'll see if I can't do something about Nagato. But unfortunately that'll probably end up on the Do Not Change on Hazard of Death list." Naruto paused to catch his breath from his tirade and noticed Kakashi staring at him.

"You're really serious about this, aren't you?" He said in an unusually solemn voice. "Yeah, Kakashi-sensei. You feel it too, right? By the time this war comes to an end, there might not be anything left to protect. I don't want to watch my friend's suffer and die while I stand by and watch. We might win, but the cost will be high. And our chances of winning at this point aren't great, even if we do manage to stop Madara. If there's a chance that even a small part of this messed up situation can be changed for the better, then I'll take the risk. Besides, I don't know why, but even though it's so crazy, I've never been so sure in my life that I was doing the right thing. Weird, huh?"

"You've always been weird, Naruto, that's nothing new." Kakashi said off-handedly, eye still scrunched up in concentration. "Oi, I'm not weird!" Naruto said angrily. "Yeah, yeah, sure." Kakashi waved a hand at Naruto dismissively and then stared at him contemplatively for a moment. "You know," he began conversationally, "something like this would have to be cleared with Tsunade-sama, and she'll never let you do something so risky, not even if I can create a seal for you and complete such a difficult jutsu."

Naruto just smiled at him serenely, "I'll convince her, you just take care of the technical stuff."

"You're being awfully demanding considering I'm your superior, Naruto." Kakashi said mock-sternly.

"Very well, Kakashi-taichou, after dinner I'll go convince Tsunade-sama and I'll let you get to work." Naruto said teasingly.

Kakashi sighed in defeat, "While I appreciate your half-assed attempt to ingratiate yourself to me, I'm not exactly looking forward to this. You are at least going to keep your promise about paying for dinner, right? And no ramen." He said sternly. Naruto pouted, but for once didn't argue.

With that they set off in companionable silence and eventually parted ways after eating a pleasant meal at the Yakiniku restaurant, where they'd run into the remnants of the former Team 10, Sakura, and surprisingly enough, Sai. While he was walking off his free meal, enjoying the slight evening breeze softly whispering through the trees and then ruffling his hair, Kakashi reflected on Naruto's sudden change in behavior. While Naruto had taken things seriously in the past, he'd never before considered the consequences of his actions so thoroughly before even voicing his ideas. For the first time, Naruto was acting like a leader instead of a young Shinobi that (no matter how strong) still needed to be guided because of his inability to think things through properly. For that reason alone, Kakashi knew that the Godaime was going to place her faith in Naruto and let him follow through with this crazy plan, so Kakashi intended to make sure that, crazy or not, it didn't get his student killed. Still, he couldn't help but smile as he heard the sounds of a very violent argument echoing through the village from the Hokage's Tower.

-R&R


	2. Parting Ways and Saying Hello

Hello again, Ch. 2 time. I should be updating this fic every week until I get inspired for the other one. Thanks for the reviews for ch. 1, btw. Interesting is probably the highest form of praise when it comes to a time-travel fic. Well, hope you like this, too.

Disclaimed.

Naruto found himself in the Hokage's office once again, for what might be the last time in this time period. He was standing to the right of the Godaime and Kakashi was on her left. The three of them were facing a room full of confused and curious people, while Shizune doggedly went about her never-ending secretarial duties despite the crowd. The Hokage had summoned the rest of the Konoha 11 and their surviving sensei as well as Sai, Tenzo, Iruka, the Konohamaru-corps and Ebisu, and even Teuchi and Ayame were there, although they had no idea why. In addition, the Aburame, Hyuuga, Yamanaka, Inuzuka, Akimichi and Nara clan heads were standing off to the side looking various shades of annoyed and exasperated at being asked to observe such a spectacle.

Once everyone had shuffled into some sort of order, Tsunade called them all to attention. "I've summoned all of you here because I have an announcement to make that concerns you. As you all know, the war hasn't been going well. We've been having a hard time coordinating our forces because our resources are spread too far apart and Mizu and Iwa have already fallen. Kumo has become the center of the war effort with outposts here and in Suna, but the attacks that took place on Mizu and Iwa directly after the Kage Summit were too unexpected for us to rally before we lost a significant number of allies. Add to that the fact that Killer-bee was tricked and taken from the island by Madara and Kisame a month and a half ago and never found, and we are looking at a significant amount of loss with no great gain to show for it. We are still strong, but at the moment we're fighting a losing war."

She paused and looked around the room. Everyone looked grim and uneasy, but still determined. She took a breath and continued, "One month ago I assigned Kakashi and Naruto the mission of devising and implementing a plan to assassinate Uchiha Madara." There were gasps and looks of shock from everyone in the room. Even Shizune stopped what she was doing and gaped at Tsunade. Not even she had been aware of this. "Kakashi has informed me that the preparations he and Naruto have been making for the last month will be completed tomorrow and at that time Naruto will leave the village alone to seek the aid of the one person who can kill Uchiha Madara."

Iruka stepped forward quickly with a worried look on his face. "Why is Naruto being sent alone, Hokage-sama?" Tsunade looked at him understandingly for a moment before hardening her features, "Naruto, it turns out, is now the only person alive that might survive this journey. That's why he has to go alone." Shikamaru frowned for a moment before speaking, "So just the journey itself would be fatal to a non-Jinchuuriki. Also, you only said he might survive. Where is he going and who is he looking for?" Tsunade rose an eyebrow at his tone but didn't comment except to say, "That's classified."

Hinata's quiet voice somehow still managed to cut over the muttering the last statement had provoked. "N-Naruto-kun might die, Hokage-sama?" In the wake of her words the room went deadly silent, waiting expectantly for an answer. Tsunade's hands were fisted with white knuckles on her desk, but other than that nothing berayed her inner turmoil, "That's why you've all been called here; even if this mission is a success, Naruto most likely wont be returning."

The room was still a moment longer before the explosion came. "What!" Sakura yelled. "-a suicide mission, Hokage-sama?" Iruka said angrily. "Tsunade-sama?" Shizune asked uncertainly. "No way!" Kiba yelled. "Boss!" Konohamaru cried, while Udon and Moegi tried to hold him back and Ebisu tried to adjust his shades and nearly poked himself in the eye instead. Ayame was crying and Teuchi was holding her and looking stricken. "Gai-sensei, Naruto-kun is-" Lee started. "Yes, Lee, pay close attention, this is Youth at its most brilliant." Gai finished. Then they cried and hugged each other. Kurenai was trying to keep her daughter quiet while frowning and shooting Kakashi questioning glances, which he studiously ignored. Chouji started devouring chips at an alarming rate, crumbs flying everywhere, Neji was twitching, Hinata was sobbing openly, Shino was buzzing and Shikamaru was scowling while Tenten and Ino looked upset but said nothing. Tenzo stared at Kakashi in that intense way of his and was also ignored while Sai stared similarly at Naruto. The clan heads, for the most part seemed somewhat ruffled in general from being kept out of the loop, except for Shikaku who had a scowl nearly as deep as his son's.

"Silence!" Tsunade yelled, eyes blazing and chest heaving as she stood with her hand braced on her desk. The wood of the new, extra sturdy desk groaned at the impact. "We were hoping for a jutsu that would disable Madara's time-space Ninjutsu, but we don't have the expertise to invent such a thing anymore. Naruto's assured me that the other way to stop Madara's plans that he is aware of is far too risky and potentially destructive. While this final option is risky for him personally, it also has the potential of ending this war without further casualties."

As she was speaking, a melancholy silence fell over the room and Iruka looked defeated. "If he dies on this mission, then we lose the other option you mentioned." Shikamaru pointed out reasonably. "Yes, but if the mission is a success the gain will be worth the risk and even the other option has no real guarantee of success." Tsunade replied. "But Shishou-" Sakura began angrily. "No buts, Sakura, the decision has been made." Tsunade said sternly. Sakura glared but didn't say anymore. "Sakura-chan, don't be mad at Baa-chan, this was my idea." Naruto, who had been silently watching everyone before this, suddenly spoke up. "But you might-" Sakura started again. "I know, but I have to try." Naruto said firmly. "I promise that I wont fail." Naruto looked around before adding, "And I truly believe that I'll see you all again someday, although it might take awhile."

Sakura stared at him for a minute before breaking eye contact and muttering, "You better be right, asshole." Naruto's eyes bulged a bit at hearing Sakura cuss for the first time. "Ne, Sakura-chan, you have to be careful or you'll end up a gambling drunk like Baa-chan." In an instant, Naruto found himself kissing the floor with two very large bumps on his head. "Like you're one to talk, you cuss all the time." Sakura accused. "What was that, brat?" Tsunade snapped. "Owwww..." Naruto groaned, slowly climbing to his feet.

The tension and sadness that had been enveloping the room had been swept away and everyone stood silently for a moment before Hinata spoke up again. She'd stopped crying and even stood up straighter than usual, "If Naruto-kun is going to be gone for awhile, then we should throw him a going-away party." She said determinedly. Everyone stared at her a moment, shocked at the shy girl's initiative and calm demeanor before everyone agreed and started planning.-

There had been tears and hugs, words of encouragement and farewell, laughter and teasing, table-dancing and alcohol (not in that order) and even a sloppy kiss on the lips in front of everyone from a very bold and very inebriated Hinata-chan. He was still blushing from that one. More importantly, there were enough smiles and happiness to keep him company even in the lonely world he was headed for.

He sat on the roof of the bar staring at the stars before he noticed that he was no longer alone. "Yo, Shika." Naruto called to the boy walking over to where he lay. Since Ero-sennin died, Shikamaru had, one way or another, become one of his closest friends. He could always count on Shikamaru to give his honest and insightful opinion on things without making a big deal out of things. For Naruto, that was an invaluable skill. Shika lay down next to Naruto and looked at the sky.

After a few minutes, Naruto started talking. "I know you like looking at the clouds, but I like looking at the stars more. They're cold and distant, but they shine so brightly. It's somehow encouraging that they're always there, shining at anyone that takes the time to look." He cast a glance a his companion, waiting. "Yeah, but clouds are unpredictable and they're almost close enough to touch, they can go from light and fluffy to dark and stormy in moments, but they're always moving. I'd think you'd understand that better." Shikamaru replied after a moment. "You're right, but the clouds only ever hide the stars for awhile, they never put them out. Then again, they're both part of the sky and if the clouds weren't there, the stars wouldn't be as beautiful when you can actually see them." Naruto rambled slightly and they both fell silent.

They stayed like that for awhile before Naruto once again broke the silence, "If I fail, I'll only die, but if I succeed I'll be forgotten." He said somewhat sadly. Shikamaru glanced at him sharply for a second before relaxing and asking, "Then why do it?" "Because it's the right thing to do." Shikamaru looked thoughtful for a second before saying, "You're not the type that would accept that. If you're forgotten, then you'll just have to remind everyone." Naruto kept staring at the sky for awhile before sitting up. "Thanks, Shika." He smiled broadly at his friend before leaving the roof and going to seek his rest. For a long time afterwards, the shadow sat on the roof looking at the stars.-

The next day dawned bright and beautiful, but unusually quiet, as many of the Leaf's most energetic ninja were suffering in their beds with blinding headaches. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, Kyuubi kept Naruto from getting both drunk and hungover. He slowly got ready, knowing that this would be the last day he spent in his apartment, and maybe even his body. He didn't have much to do, his apartment was a bit messy as usual; he wasn't going to bother to clean it. He got dressed in the outfit Jiraiya bought him, tied on his hitai-ate, locked up his apartment and walked towards the Hokage monument. He left behind his shuriken and kunai, knowing he wouldn't need them for once.

For the next hour, as the sun rose over the village, he sat on the Godaime's statue head and watched the people of Konoha begin their day. He usually sat on the Yondaime's head or sometimes the Sandaime's, but it seemed a fitting way to say goodbye to the village he knew. He had so much history with these people by now. He had seen the worst and the best of them in his lifetime and been shaped by it. This place had become a part of him and no matter what he found in the past, he knew it wouldn't be the same. The village's current warmth towards him calmed him in a way he hadn't thought possible. He finally had a home; a group of people that welcomed him and acknowledged him. He would do anything to protect them, even give them up.

After he'd finished saying goodbye to the village, he left to meet Kakashi and Tsunade at the gate. For once, Kakashi wasn't late; a testiment to the seriousness of the situation. None of the others were there except Sakura. It'd been wordlessly agreed to that the night before was the time for the others to say their goodbyes.

Kakashi was slouching lazily against the gate, but his little orange book was nowhere to be seen and his lone visible eye was intent upon Naruto's approaching figure. Tsunade looked unusually grim and subdued, cutting an imposing figure in her usual outfit, while Sakura looked like she hadn't slept at all, giving her a far more rumpled look in the dawn than the neat medic usually sported.

"Mornin', Sakura-chan, Baa-chan, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto greeted them with a smile. They all stood silently for a moment before Sakura hugged Naruto unexpectedly. "You better come back, promise me we'll see you again, it'll be your real promise of a lifetime." She whispered with tears in her eyes. Naruto looked taken aback for a moment before returning her hug, "I promise, Sakura-chan." She nodded and stepped back. Tsunade looked like she wanted to say something for a moment, but instead quickly yanked Naruto's forehead protector down over his eyes, ruffled his hair and kissed him on the forehead. "Take care of yourself, Brat." she said.

With that she abruptly turned and walked over to Sakura, slipping her arm around the younger woman's shoulders in a rare display of support. Naruto replaced his forehead protector and gave them his best foxy grin, "The next time we see each other, I promise to give you both the surprise of your lives." They looked at each other in confusion and apprehension for a moment before laughing a bit. "I'd like to see you try, Brat. "Oh, just you wait." Naruto shot back mischievously. With that he turned to Kakashi, "Let's go." he said more seriously, and in two matching streaks of Shunshin no Jutsu, they were gone.-

In the middle of a peaceful field of grass interspersed with wild-flowers, somewhat fittingly including several Forget-Me-Nots, lay a whirlwind of activity. It looked like a pack had exploded, strewing its contents all around the area and the truth wasn't far off. Kakashi had surrounded himself with sealing materials and papers. He'd cleared a large segment of earth using a Katon jutsu and had drawn a large and very intricate seal onto the exposed earth. The ink of the seal included blood from both Naruto and Kakashi, tying them both into the technique. The seal script of the seal on the ground indicated that the chakra to power the seal would come from the Shiki Fuuin seal on Naruto and that the seal's main purpose was to transport the seal Naruto had pain-stakingly drawn on Kakashi's stomach to that of his former self.

To accomplish this difficult feat would require Naruto to unlock the Shiki Fuuin before channeling the fox's chakra into the seal on the ground, thereby activating it. After that Kakashi would use his Sharingan to regulate the chakra getting sucked into the seal and allow the seal to access his eye's connection to the flowing stream of space-time. Needless to say there would be a tremendous amount of strain placed on him during the execution of the jutsu, which would only be added to by the fact that after the activation of the seal, Naruto would simultaneously be pushing his own chakra into the seal on Kakashi's stomach. The timing would have to be perfect; if one of the seals finished activating before the other, the entire jutsu could become unstable or fail entirely.

Kakashi, having finished double-checking the two seals, packed up the mess and threw his bag against a nearby tree. The two ninja kneeled across from each other in the center of the seal, careful not to damage the seal carved and inked onto the ground. Kakashi had removed his hitai-ate for the jutsu and looked at Naruto with one open eye. Naruto stared back at his sensei before disturbing the mood by bursting out laughing.

"Sensei, you look so uncool right now, I wish Gai-sensei was here to see this, he'd never let you live down wearing your mask and pants with no shirt." Naruto said between guffaws. Kakashi just stared back at him with some measure of annoyance, "Well he's not, and need I remind you who'd idiotic idea all of this was?" Naruto finally managed to get himself under control. "Yeah, yeah, relax already, it was just a joke. But I am grateful, sensei. I know how big a risk you're taking by doing this." Kakashi sighed, "It's nothing compared to the risk to you, you know."

Naruto tilted his head to the side a bit and regarded his sensei, "Yeah, but you've been working on this all month, I'm grateful that you have enough faith in me to give this a try." Kakashi eye-smiled at Naruto, "It's a teacher's duty to have faith in his students. Just be careful in the past, alright? Think through any changes you make and plan ahead. Although asking you to do that is pretty much pointless, I guess." Kakashi chuckled. "Hey, I can think ahead when I need to." Naruto huffed.

"Riiight. Just remember that you wont have any of us there to help you. The decisions you make will change lives and you have to make those decisions on your own. But don't forget either that we all believe in you and that the others of us in the past will come to as well, so don't give up." Naruto smiled calmly at Kakashi, "I'll remember, sensei." Kakashi nodded slightly, "Are you ready?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm ready." Naruto replied. "Then unlock your seal and start the jutsu, and remember to say hello to the others for me." Kakashi ended with a smile. "Alright, here we go." Naruto said and with that he began to unlock his seal for the second time.

Kyuubi, let it be stated for the record, did not like this plan. It involved him dying, and that didn't appeal to him. Despite that, he was lending his power to it, having long since realized the futility of reasoning with his impulsive Jinchuuriki. So when Naruto drew on his power, he didn't protest, just giving one last warning, "Foolish human, if you interfere with your own conception you will disappear forever." Well, the Kyuubi never was a demon of many words, excluding insults of course. Naruto nearly stopped the jutsu, having not considered this at all. He recovered, however, and replied, "I wont, Kyuubi."

After that he activated the seal on the ground and focused entirely on his task. Kyuuni's chakra flowed from the seal on his stomach into the seal on the ground rapidly. Kakashi was already working to maintain and stabilize the jutsu and as the minutes ticked by sweat beaded on his forehead from the strain. Once fully half of the Kyuubi's chakra had been sucked into the technique, Naruto reached forward and pushed his own chakra out his right hand and into the seal on Kakashi's stomach.

Naruto fought to keep the flow of both streams of chakra steady as he felt himself quickly start to tire. The draining of so much chakra out of him was exhausting and controlling the chakra even more so considering his lousy control. He took deep, even breaths to keep his body from seizing in pain, drawing on the discipline he'd learned in the course of his sage training. After a few more minutes, he felt his consciousness start to fade, but kept the flow steady, looking into his teacher's eyes and promising to change things as the world began to disappear.

Kakashi was drenched in sweat, chest heaving as he fought to maintain the jutsu. When Naruto's eyes rolled up and he fell forward, Kakashi automatically steadied him, groaning from the effort of holding up his student and taking full control of the chakra flowing from Naruto at the same time. Finally the chakra flow trickled to a stop and Kakashi placed Naruto's body on the ground, freeing his hands for the last step of the jutsu. Activating his Mangekyou, he focused it on his stomach and went through a sequence of twenty-four hand-seals, holding the Ram seal at the end. The seal on the ground flared blindingly bright for a moment and his eye started bleeding from the renewed strain of the technique. He watched the seal on his stomach fade and held the jutsu as all traces of it slowly disappeared. Even after it was gone he waited until the power in the seal at his feet was expended and then breathed a sigh of relief before finally succumbing to chakra exhaustion and passing out next to his student's cooling body.-

Hatake Kakashi was a quiet, serious boy, not prone to displaying his feelings on his face. His purpose in life was living up to his father's legacy and he'd dedicated himself entirely to that goal ever since his mother died of illness four years before. As a result of that, he had graduated from the academy a few days ago at the age of seven. Today he was getting his team assignment and had arrived at the academy early, taking his usual seat at the front of the classroom and waiting quietly for his sensei and the other students to arrive.

Despite his pride at graduating though, all was not well in the life of Kakashi. His father had barely acknowledged his graduation, there had been no celebration and no congratulations. In fact, as of late, his father had become more and more withdrawn. Ever since that disastrous mission a year and a half ago, his father had been different. Kakashi didn't know much about the mission, since his father wouldn't talk about it, but he'd heard enough from the other students and villagers that talked about it when he walked by to know that his father had ordered the team he'd been leading to abandon their mission and it'd resulted in a large loss of life on the battlefield. His father was castigated throughout the village as a coward and there had even been some whispered speculation as to the possibility of him being a traitor.

Kakashi didn't know what to think, but he couldn't stomach the idea that his father had acted dishonorably and hated the way the villagers and the other children acted towards him as a result. That's why as the students filed into the classroom and took their seats, Kakashi held himself stiffly and ignored the snickering of the other students directed at their younger classmate for his usual prim appearance and early arrival.

The teacher, Arakawa-sensei, was a middle-aged Chuunin that had taught at the academy for decades, and would probably continue for decades more. As the man called roll for this class for the last time, Kakashi suddenly got a brief feeling of deja vu. It passed quickly though and was just as swiftly replaced by dizziness and a burning pain in his belly. Kakashi fought to remain in his seat and keep from crying out as the pain got more and more intense. Finally, with a last white-hot stab through his gut, the pain receded to a dull ache. Now that he could think again, Kakashi surreptitiously glanced down at his stomach where it was hidden by the desk from the view of the others.

It was fortunate, in a way, that nobody was sitting next to him, or they would have surely spotted the seal that showed through his burned shirt. Kakashi gaped and instinctively covered the hole in his shirt with his mock-Chuunin vest. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed and saw to his relief that no one had; not even the Chuunin instructor. He was at a loss as to what to make of this odd occurrence when suddenly he felt a pull from the seal on him and found himself losing consciousness and slumping forward on his desk only to wake up in an entirely different room.

Kakashi looked around. It was cozy and dark with two large chairs facing a cheery fire. One of the chairs was occupied by a man that Kakashi couldn't make out very well until he turned towards him. The young man smiled, "Hello, Kakashi." Kakashi once again found himself speechless with his mouth hanging open. What the hell was going on?

Naruto awoke to find himself in a blank stone room with no doors. Confused, he looked around a bit and noticed the seal on one of the walls. Oh. He extended his senses past the walls and confirmed what he had already guessed; he was in the seal on Kakashi's stomach. Now to find out when he was and if the justu had succeeded. First, he decorated the room a bit to make it more suitable to habitation; after all, if you're going to be stuck in a room for a long time, you might as well be comfortable.

That done Naruto pulled at his host and brought Kakashi's consciousness into the seal with him. He felt Kakashi arrive and turned to smile at the young boy who would become his sensei, "Hello, Kakashi." The boy looked shocked and confused and Naruto was surprised that the mask he was so used to seeing his teacher wear was absent. He couldn't help but note, "You look weird without your mask." The boy gave him a look like he was mad and Naruto chuckled. "Can you tell me whether or not it's 9am on the day of your team assignment, Kakashi-kun?" Naruto asked politely.

The boy stared at him some more and he sighed, "Look, I understand that you're shocked, Kakashi, but if it is then we don't have much time before your father dies, so we need to hurry." Naruto looked at the boy sternly, "Pull yourself together." Kakashi closed his mouth with a click, "Who are you and what have you done to me?" He asked rather angrily. Naruto sighed again, "We'll have time to discuss that later, right now we need to hurry and save your father. Can I borrow your body for awhile? You'll be able to talk to me and see what's going on but I'll be in control. That will make this easier."

Kakashi continued staring at him for a moment before asking, "How do I know I can trust you?" he demanded. "You don't. But if you want to save your father, you will." Naruto said simply. Kakashi bit his lip thinking and then seemed to reach a conclusion, "Alright, we'll see if you're telling the truth or not." Naruto sighed in relief, "Thanks, you wont regret it." The last thing he heard before he woke up in the classroom was a muttered, "Not like I have much of a choice, anyway." from Kakashi.-

He chuckled slightly from his slumped over position. Kakashi as a child was pretty much how he had expected him to be; cool and sarcastic. He became aware of his surroundings and cursed silently. The entire classroom was staring at him and the teacher seemed concerned. So much for not drawing attention to himself. He stood up quickly, "Sorry everyone, I'm not feeling very well, I think I need to go home." And without another word he hopped out the window, leaving behind the teacher's protests and the other students' surprised chatter.

'Kakashi, I don't know the way to your house.' he silently reminded. Kakashi started rattling off directions in his head, which he followed unerringly. As he neared the house, Kakashi asked, 'How do I know you're not going to try to kill my father rather than save him from this unknown threat? Speaking of which, what makes you think his life's in danger and why do you think there's anything you can do?'

'Questions later.' Naruto snorted, 'As for how you can trust me not to kill him; do you think I could?' Kakashi didn't respond, which was all the answer Naruto needed as he opened the door and ran through the entrance of the large traditional house. 'Where's the Dojo?' Naruto asked. 'Behind the house. It's a separate building.' Kakashi replied. Naruto ran down the house's main hall and out the back door, across the yard and up the steps to the Dojo. He stopped at the Dojo's entrance and gently opened the sliding door.

As he'd expected, he saw that Sakumo was already there, meditating with a sheathed Ninjato sitting on the floor in front of him. It was more traditional to use a Wakizashi for Seppuku, but Sakumo's use of the standard issue ANBU Ninjato was likely meant to be symbolic. The man's eyes opened and widened at the sight of his son in the doorway before he calmed himself. "Why aren't you at your team assignment, Kakashi?"

Instead of answering immediately, Naruto walked forward, picked up the Ninjato and threw it out the open door. "Why were you planning on committing suicide while I was getting my team assignment?" he shot back hotly, his hands fisted as his sides. Sakumo's eyes widened again, "How did you-" he began. "I'm a friend of Kakashi's that's trying to keep him from regretting this day for the rest of his life," he paused, "but I'm not him." He waited and sure enough before he could move or think he ended up pushed up against a wall with a kunai nicking his neck. "Who are you, and what did you do to my son?" Sakumo snarled. As expected, the best way to distract a ninja from suicide was to threaten their loved ones. He'd learned that much from Haku.

"Careful, this isn't a Henge, I'm sealed inside your son's body, look at his stomach. If you kill me right now, we'll both die." Sakumo frowned in disbelief for a moment before opening Kakashi's jacket and pulling back enough to see the seal without taking his eyes off Naruto's movements. He scowled, "What do you want?" Naruto smiled, "I want you not to kill yourself and abandon your son in the process." Sakumo drew in a breath in shock and sat back. "What? Why? And who are you?"

Naruto sighed, "I'm a friend, like I said, it's a long story and I'm not just here for you, but it's my reason for coming now and sealing myself inside your son was quite risky, I might add. My body's died as a result and if anything happens to the seal I will too." He paused. "Look, I know you're trying to reclaim your honor so that your reputation as a failure and a coward doesn't ruin your son's future, but take it from someone who grew up without parents and was hated by almost everyone around them,"

Naruto glared at Sakumo darkly, "A person can face any kind of dishonor or suffering as long as they have their loved ones, but the loneliness and betrayal of abandonment is something that a person can never truly recover from. Is that really what you want for your son? Is your reputation so important that you would sacrifice your son's happiness to restore it? Do you think that he'd be stronger for having to grow up by himself? If you're gone, then who'll look after him?" Naruto heaved breaths into his lungs, a bit shocked at himself. For all that he bore no more ill will for the way he'd grown up, the idea of Sakumo wilfully abandoning his son was sickening to him; proving that while he had gotten over his own suffering, he still couldn't bear to see others treated the same in any way.

Sakumo, for his part, looked lost. Naruto expected him to retort, but it seemed that hearing such words from his son's mouth had rendered him speechless. After a minute or two though, he recollected himself and replied softly, "That's why I waited until he'd graduated. He'll have a sensei to look after him now; he doesn't need me making his life any harder than it already will be." Naruto gave the man a stern look, quite a feat for an seven year old child, "Stop pitying yourself. I know that being hated by even those you saved is hard, but you should know that a sensei is no replacement for a father. After all I've heard of your bravery and conviction, seeing you run away from your problems like a coward is disappointing." Naruto wondered idly how much more it would take for the man in front of him to get pissed off and snap out of his depression.

Apparently not much, since just as that thought crossed him mind, Sakumo's eyes flashed and Naruto finally understood why the broken down man had once been refered to as a legend. Getting threateningly close to his face, Sakumo spoke with deceptive calm, "What do you know about cowardice, you bastard, this is the only way for me to atone for my mistakes. I'm not running away, I'm making amends." Naruto looked at him sadly, "That's only assuming that you did anything wrong to begin with, Sakumo-san." Sakumo's eyes widened again, "You don't know, I-" Naruto interrupted, "I do know, you saw that even if you committed your team to the suicide mission you'd been assigned, the chances of success were slim to none. The losses were high as a result of the mission's failure, it's true, but we would have lost your team as well if you'd gone ahead and with the number of ninja Iwa has, we can't afford to be throwing away ours so carelessly.

I know better than most the necessity of sacrifice in the ninja world, but I also know that those that allow their comrades to die are the worst kind of trash. If you commit suicide to 'atone' for your actions, then you'll just be showing everyone that what you did was dishonorable, when it truly wasn't. If you don't stand by what you know is right now, then who will show them that they're wrong? Who will be able to teach your son to value his comrades if you prove to him that the only thing that results from doing so is a disgraceful death?" Sakumo's eyes were still wide and he continued to stare at Naruto, but he also seemed to be thinking through what Naruto had said very carefully.

Eventually, after several minutes of silence, he spoke. "Who are you?" Naruto smiled a little, "Uzumaki Naruto, the future Rokudaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato." Sakumo's eyes widened a little further. "How and why are you here?" Naruto's smile widened and his eyes danced with restrained amusement, "To save my sensei's father and to make sure that Konoha's future is much brighter than it was." His eyes turned serious at that, "And I want you to help me. I want you to promise that you would no sooner throw away your life meaninglessly than sacrifice a comrade. You're life is just as precious as the lives of your comrades and there are too many people relying on you for you to do that.

The people of Konoha need you whether they know it or not, and more importantly, your son needs you. As for how I got here, I think it would be best that that remain a secret, although I will tell you that it was with your son's permission and aid." He finished and wondered if he had laid it on a bit thick, but at the lively gleam in the elder man's eyes, he knew that it had been worthwhile to make the effort to reason with the man instead of losing his temper and yelling at him as he usually did.

Sakumo eyed him appraisingly for a moment before speaking, "Your sensei, huh? To have taught a student like you, he must have turned out alright even without me." Naruto looked him in the eyes before replying seriously, "Yes, he became a great ninja, but the cost of that greatness was that he was always plagued by regret, and not just for your death, either. I'd like for that not to be the case this time, but that depends on you." He looked at Sakumo expectantly and the man took a deep breath. "I see, in that case, I'll promise, Hokage-sama." He bowed his head a little and it was Naruto's turn to feel his eyes widen.

"Well," he said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "I actually came back before I was sworn into office, my predecessor would still have been Hokage for some time yet." He muttered, embarrassed. Sakumo laughed a little, lightly, "No, if you were entrusted with a mission of this magnitude, then you were entrusted with the future of Konoha as well. That's something a Hokage only entrusts to their successor, when they become Hokage." Naruto looked at the man somewhat shocked and then muttered darkly, clearly affronted. "Figures Baa-chan wouldn't say anything about that before I left; instead I get to hear it from some guy I never even met before. Geez." Sakumo laughed even more loudly. "May I ask how old you are Naruto-sama?"

Naruto grimaced, "It's not -sama, just Naruto. And I'm 18." Sakumo looked at him more soberly, "That's pretty young. Well, Naruto, can I speak to my son now? There's something I need to say to him." Naruto smiled a little wanly, "Gladly, Kakashi-kun's been yelling in my ear non-stop this entire time. It's lucky that I'm used to ignoring ranting in my head." Sakumo looked at him oddly and he realized how he'd sounded. "It's a long story." He replied before the man got the wrong idea.

He suddenly grinned at Sakumo brightly, "By the way, Kakashi-sensei told me to say hello to you for him, and to tell you that he believes that you are a true hero." After a moment of some powerful emotion that he couldn't describe, Sakumo opened his mouth to respond, but before he could Kakashi's body collapsed forward and he had to quickly put his kunai away before he injured his son, while smoothly catching Kakashi and lowering him to the floor.

He looked at his son's limp form and after satisfying himself that Kakashi's pulse was still strong, he started thinking about all he'd heard and what he would say to his son when he woke. He knew that Kakashi was likely to be even more shocked and upset by the previous conversation than he himself had been and sighed, resigning himself to the difficult discussion that was sure to come. Casting one more worried glance at the boy, Sakumo settled in to do one of his least favorite things: wait.

-R&R


	3. Meeting Lost Friends

Hey guys, sorry about the late chapter, this one was a real pain to edit cause it's all talking. Well, next chapter there will be some action now that I've got this out of the way. Also, I should be writing for my other fics, too. Hope you like it.-

Disclaimed.

As Naruto entered the room in Kakashi's head, he received a shock; Kakashi was standing with his hands fisted at his sides in the middle of the room, looking somewhere between disturbed and disgruntled. Naruto was uncomfortably reminded of a younger Sasuke's scowling pouts. The shocking part was that Kakashi looked like he might cry for all that he was holding back. So much for the stoic and ever confident Kakashi-sensei, Naruto thought wryly.

Kakashi took a steadying breath at the sight of Naruto, "Why didn't you tell me that he was trying to kill himself?" Naruto looked at him guiltily, "Sorry, there wasn't time. I didn't know when he would do it and I still don't know what time it is here." Kakashi looked at him angrily, "Then why didn't you let me talk to him?"

Naruto grabbed Kakashi by his shoulder and pushed him into one of the chairs, sat in the other and sighed. "I wanted to talk to him first, and that's the kind of conversation that you have to finish once you start it. Look, before you go out there, there's something you need to understand. You're the only reason he hasn't killed himself already. I know it's hard for most kids to see their parents so vulnerable, but right now you're basically the only person that can really help him. If you believe him to be a coward too, then who knows what he'll do? He promised, but life isn't always so simple." Naruto paused, before asking, "So, what do you think about what he did?"

Kakashi looked into the fire for awhile, "The entire village thinks he's a coward, what makes you think they're wrong?" Naruto fought to keep his temper and mostly succeeded, but couldn't help thinking that Kakashi was a fairly intolerable prick at this point. Instead of getting angry though, he considered the question. "The villagers aren't the ones to judge him, his superiors are. And while there are some among his superiors who disapprove of his actions, Sandaime-sama supports them. Why do you think that you're father hasn't received even an official reprimand? Sandaime-sama is a wise man, and can be trusted when it comes to making these kinds of decisions. That's why he's Hokage." Naruto said simply and sighed silently.

He was a little annoyed that he'd come back to a time before the village had become used to his own particular form in insubordination. He'd have to do something about that, this stiff and formal style of speech was not his. For the moment Kakashi thought about what he said for awhile. Then he abruptly turned to Naruto, "Alright then, what about you? You claim to be a Hokage from the future, does that mean you're wise?"

Naruto chuckled and ran a hand through his hair, "I have my moments. I was mostly going to be chosen for my ability to give people hope, though. That and my uncompromising determination to protect my loved ones and the village." He paused for a second, "Well, I guess being the strongest, most hardworking ninja in the village had something to do with it too." He said, smiling.

Kakashi looked at him dubiously, "You don't look like much. You said earlier that you couldn't kill my father." he pointed out. Naruto snorted, "Well, obviously I'd have some trouble trapped in the body of an seven year old. But enough of this. You need to talk to your father. He's waiting for you." And with that he gave the reluctant boy a little push into the outside world.

Kakashi sat up to be greeted by an increasingly uncomfortable silence. He cursed the odd man sealed inside him for not giving him time to prepare himself. He looked at his father who was eyeing him with some uncertainty. "Kakashi, is that you?" he asked softly. "Hai, Otou-san." Sakumo breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?" Kakashi wondered if that question ought to be directed towards his father more than him, despite his own strange circumstances. "Yes, I'm fine." Sakumo creased his brow, "What happened to you?" Kakashi finally lost his patience and blurted, annoyed, "Shouldn't I be asking that?" He immediately regretted it though when Sakumo's frown deepened further, "Kakashi-" he began warningly.

Kakashi sighed and answered, "I was waiting for my team assignment when my stomach started hurting. After the pain faded, I noticed the seal that had appeared and hid it before passing out. I woke up inside my mind, and that man told me that we had to hurry, if we wanted to save you and that it would be easier if I allowed him to borrow my body for a bit. I agreed and you know the rest."

Sakumo looked pensive, "I see. It seems he's likely telling the truth, then. We will need to inform Hokage-sama about this and decide how to deal with this new...development. We should probably go as soon as possible. We also need to deal with the matter of your team assignment." he said, looking pointedly at Kakashi. "Hai, Otou-san." Kakashi answered. They got ready to go, but Kakashi suddenly stopped as a now familiar voice sounded in his mind. "Are you really going to let him pretend nothing happened? Remember what I told you; he needs you right now, even if he doesn't act like it." Kakashi paused before speaking, "Otou-san..." he began hesitantly. Sakumo stiffened slightly, "Yes, Kakashi?"

Kakashi looked him in the eye and said, "I'm glad we made it in time and I-...I have my doubts, but after hearing you two talk, I don't think the villagers are right to treat you the way they do." He hesitated and finished quietly, "Your teammates, either." Sakumo looked surprised at his normally withdrawn son before smiling a little at him and ruffling the boy's gravity-defying gray tuft, much to his annoyance. "Thank you, Kakashi." he said softly and without another word they took off towards the Hokage's Tower.

The Sandaime Hokage in middle age was not a man to be trifled with. True, he had long since acquired the patient and benevolent demeanor that he would be praised and loved for later in life, but as anyone that had managed to displease him could tell you, that gentle, kindly protector could be replaced in an instant with the most intelligent and imposing Kage on the continent. He had led the Leaf in a total of three Shinobi wars and it had thrived under his leadership despite the odds. He had dedicated his life to the tedious task of realizing the dreams his mentor's had died for and never once in his time as Hokage had his faith in and dedication to those dreams wavered.

This particular day, however, seemed destined to test his patience. There had been an unusually large number of mission requests; even in times of war, a ninja village had to keep taking out side missions, although most of them ended up being related to the war somehow anyway. Couple that with the usual missions he assigned to keep the frontline from being pushed deeper into Hi no Kuni, and his ninja force was being stretched dangerously thin.

That didn't mean that they could refuse missions, however. No, that would mean the Leaf was unable to maintain its economy any longer, and that would be the beginning of the end for the village. They had to hold back the Iwa ninja, keep taking missions, and succeed at those missions even though they were ridiculously outnumbered. All in all, the Leaf was slowly losing a war of attrition.

If it weren't for his ninja's high caliber they wouldn't have lasted even this long and the war was far from over. He wished Tsunade hadn't left the village at the end of the last war, at this point, he would have been willing to put her plan of having a medic on every team into effect, if only because he could no longer afford to lose any of his ninja to easily treated field injuries merely because of a lack of qualified personnel. He cursed himself at least twice a day for not making that investment when the opportunity had arisen.

Well, there was some hope. That student of Jiraiya's was turning out to be quite a genius in terms of dealing with multiple opponents. It was only a few months ago that Minato-kun had field tested his Hiraishin no Jutsu, but since then the war had been miraculously starting to swing in their favor. They were still a ways off of being on equal terms with Iwa, but they were at least finally starting to recover from that disastrous defeat after Sakumo's failed mission.

Hiruzen scowled. That lead him to thinking about his most recent slew of problems. The reason they were short-staffed again was because after a few months on the frontlines, Minato had needed a break. That in and of itself wasn't a problem. Generally, no matter how strategically important or strong a Shinobi proves themselves to be, if they don't get away from the front-lines every once in a while, they eventually crack under the pressure. Minato had been pushing himself past his limits for months, and Hiruzen knew that the young man needed his well-earned rest. Considering that, Hiruzen had assigned him a genin team, consisting of a promising young medic trainee, the graduating class's lone Uchiha who had a lot of spirit, but undoubtedly needed a mentor of Minato's quality to smooth out his rough edges and Hatake Sakumo's son Kakashi.

Hiruzen sighed, rubbing his face. The problem was that the council had fought tooth and nail against this assignment. They argued that the son of the disgraced Sakumo was unworthy of being assigned to the team of Konoha's newly emerging war hero. The reason Hiruzen had overruled them was because he wanted to give Sakumo's son a chance to clear his father's, and his, name through his own effort and having a sensei like Minato would be helpful in accomplishing that goal. It was the best he could do for his old friend, as more public displays of support would undermine the war effort. Not to mention that the boy was talented and two years younger than his other classmates. That was what had finally convinced the council to acquiesce.

What Hiruzen hadn't considered was that the boy would up and disappear on the day of his team assignment. He already had a not-very-happy Namikaze Minato sitting in the lobby trying not to lose his temper with a very bored Uchiha Obito. Now he had a council meeting in fifteen minutes where the council members would probably succeed in forcing him to change the team assignment.

After Minato had come with his other two genin to report the boy's absence, he had sent a Chuunin messenger to Sakumo's house and delayed by asking Minato to wait with his team in case the boy showed up. He had been hoping that Sakumo or his son would arrive with an explanation, but knew that in a few more minutes it would be a moot point. The council was fast; most likely the Chuunin wouldn't have time to deliver his message and bring the two Hatake's here before it was time for the meeting.

That's why Hiruzen considered it the first good thing to happen to him all day when his secretary knocked on his door and came in announcing the arrival of Sakumo and Kakashi. He smiled, "Thank you, Akiko-san, send them in and let team 7 know they should have their teammate soon." Akiko bowed, "Hai, Hokage-sama." and closed the door. The Hokage felt his mood lift at the turn of events, but kept his face stern; he figured he should be able to dismiss the boy's absence with a lecture and leave it at that. His hopefulness was understandable if a bit misguided, after all, even a veteran Hokage has to be wrong sometimes.

As soon as Akiko finished letting the two Hatake's into his office, he knew that something was wrong. As the door closed behind them Hiruzen noted the grim expression on Sakumo's face, as well as the uncomfortable and uncertain look on Kakashi's face. The boy was also gripping his jacket tightly around his stomach, for all the world like he was trying to keep his insides from spilling out, although there was no blood. Despite the boy's obvious attempts to seem unaffected, his state of mind was obvious to the trained eye of the Hokage.

Hiruzen waited for Sakumo to speak first. "Hokage-sama, today a seal appeared on my son's stomach and that is why he left the academy before he was assigned to his genin team. I apologize for the inconvenience this has no doubt caused you." With that Sakumo bowed, as did Kakashi, and waited for the Hokage's permission to rise, which he promptly gave them.

Even after all these years, he didn't understand how people could stand on formalities even under such odd circumstances. He supposed it much be the human way of coping with strangeness. "Do you have any ideas as to the source and nature of this seal?" he asked. Sakumo looked him in the eye before responding, "Hai, Hokage-sama, it seems to contain a foreign chakra entity that has identified himself as Uzumaki Naruto, the Rokudaime Hokage."

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows in disbelief, "He claims to be a student of my son's who with Kakashi's help has traveled back in time to save Konoha." Throughout all of this, Sakumo clearly struggled to keep a straight face, but in spite of his best efforts, his eyebrow twitched a bit, showing his unease at the Hokage's possible bad reaction to his report.

Hiruzen sat for a minute, his thoughts whirling before he sighed, "At ease, Sakumo, Kakashi, it looks like this might take awhile, why don't you both take a seat, I will have Akiko bring in refreshments." He proceeded to exit his office, the very image of a calm and dignified Hokage. "Akiko-san, send a message to the council that our meeting will have to be cancelled for now, something's come up. I will summon them as soon as it's taken care of. Also, summon Jiraiya here immediately, he ought to be at the hot springs at this time of day."

He paused, a slight smile on his lips, "If he gives the messenger any lip have them tell him that it's an order from his sensei, he'll listen. And please bring in tea and refreshments for four, it seems this meeting is likely to take awhile and all other business except for emergencies will have to wait."

Akiko looked slightly concerned at the severity of the situation, but years of experience kept her from hesitating. "I understand, Hokage-sama." She bowed and without another word set to her tasks with brisk efficiency. Hiruzen nodded approvingly and then went to speak with Minato's team himself.

As he approached the trio, he knew that he had made the right choice in dealing with this situation himself. Minato looked distinctly haggard, having only returned to Konoha the night before. Rin looked bored and uncomfortable with the situation, although she was doing her best to hide it and Obito was squirming fiercely in his seat, whining every time he drew breath about how boring all the waiting was and how they should just forget about the boring, stick-up-his-ass Kakashi.

Hiruzen cleared his throat, drawing their attention. He smiled, "I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting here, but it seems it's going to be awhile before you can meet with Kakashi-kun. Why don't you all go home and get some rest and meet here again at ten a.m. tomorrow morning." They looked at him like he was speaking another language for a moment before getting up to leave.

Minato, predictably, looked concerned and curious as to what the hold-up could be while the two genin with him merely looked relieved to be leaving. Minato bowed and Rin, at least, followed his example, "Have a good afternoon, Hokage-sama."

Hiruzen nodded and smiled in return, "Get some rest, Minato-kun, you're earned it. And give my regards to Kushina-kun, as well." Minato smiled, "Thank you, Hokage-sama." After that, they left and Hiruzen wearily turned to go back to his office and the mystery it held.

Naruto had never been a patient person and doing nothing in Kakashi's head was already turning out to be the most boring thing he'd ever had to do. He couldn't even really fidget. He watched but had no control over what happened. Whatever sour feelings he held towards Kyuubi for being such a grouch over the years were completely forgotten in the face of his discovery of something even more tedious than Sage training. He respected Kyuubi for not losing his mind after sixteen years of this.

He watched and listened while Sakumo, Kakashi and Sarutobi-jiji sat around talking about him and sipping tea. There was food, but none of them seemed to have much of an appetite. They were waiting for Ero-sennin to come check the seal. Jiji had listened while Kakashi and Sakumo recounted the events of the day in detail and now they were discussing the possibility of him being a spy.

Finally losing patience, he spoke into Kakashi's mind, careful not to startle the boy. 'Hey, Kakashi-kun, I can prove my identity and answer any questions about me myself. Can I take over for that part of the conversation? It'd probably be a good idea for Jiji to get to talk to me directly.' Kakashi sat quietly for a bit before responding, 'I'll ask.'

Kakashi cleared his throat to get the attention of the two men, "Hokage-sama, Naruto says he can prove his identity and answer any questions you have himself. He's asked my permission to take over and speak to you in person, so to speak." Naruto thought Sandaime didn't looked pleased to be reminded that there was already a fourth person in the room listening to the conversation, but the middle-aged man refrained from commenting.

While Naruto was thinking about the differences between the old man and this younger Hokage that sat before him, Hiruzen was weighing his options. It might be better to wait until Jiraiya checked the seal before trying anything, but talking with the source of this problem could yield a great deal. He made up his mind. "Yes, if you don't mind Kakashi." he asked, not wanting to stress the boy more than he already had been.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." After saying this, Kakashi started to slump forward only to right himself quickly. "Good afternoon, Hokage-sama, I'm Uzumaki Naruto. It's good to see you again." The boy said with a wide smile and the Hokage had to fight to not react to the changes in Kakashi.

The boy's eyes seemed to shine with knowledge and experience and something else that Hiruzen was startled to recognize as warmth directed at him. If that wasn't enough of a shock, the boy's face had rearranged itself somehow, making the solemn and reserved boy seem both younger and happier at the same time. Combined with the eyes, it made for quite a contradictory picture painted on the boy's face and the Hokage wondered if that contradiction had also shown itself on this Naruto's original face. Probably.

He recollected himself quickly, "You make it sound like you knew me, is that how you intend to prove that you're the Rokudaime Hokage?" Naruto's smile widened a bit, but he also looked sad, "Yah, I knew you in my childhood, but it's been a long time since I've seen you alive and you're also a bit younger than I remember."

He had a slightly mischievous look at the last but it quickly disappeared. "As for how I intend to prove myself, it's not through knowledge of you, but rather through intimate knowledge of two of your students and a message from one of them. I think most of my story should probably wait for Jiraiya to arrive. Are there any questions I can answer for you in the meantime?"

Hiruzen thought for a moment. "You said Uzumaki Naruto. Any relation to the Uzumaki clan of Uzu no Kuni?" Naruto nodded, "Yup, but before we talk about any more I would like your permission to put Kakashi-kun to sleep. There's a lot of what I'm going to tell you that he shouldn't hear, because it involves his future. And there could be severe consequences to him knowing about what's going to happen ahead of time." Hiruzen was slightly suspicious of the stranger's motives, but saw no immediate cause for concern and so reluctantly agreed. After Naruto confirmed that it was safe to continue, Hiruzen couldn't help but ask, "So what's the real reason you didn't want him to hear about your connection to the Uzumaki clan?"

Naruto sighed and then grinned hugely, "Sharp as always, Jiji. In my time, I'm the only Uzumaki in Konoha and in this time that person is my mother. Since her boyfriend, my father, is going to be Kakashi's jounin sensei, I'm worried about him finding out and acting weird around them as soon as he meets them. I'd trust Kakashi-sensei with my life any day, but Kakashi-kun is still only seven. I don't want to complicate things for him more than I have already."

Naruto paused and snorted, "Although knowing him, he's gonna figure it out eventually anyway. But I think it's still too early for him to accept that and have it not affect his relationship with his sensei, so I'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Hiruzen looked at Sakumo to find that the man was staring at Naruto with a slightly glazed look. He was probably still getting used to having someone else speak through his son's body and wouldn't be much help for awhile. He looked back at Naruto and raised an eyebrow. "Well then, your first test will be telling me your parents names, since I can guess who you're referring to based on what you've said and Kakashi's jounin sensei hadn't been named at the point you were sealed into him. Only me and the Chuunin instructor knew. It's not impossible that a spy could get that information, but it would help your case."

Naruto nodded, still smiling, "My parents are Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato." At that, Sakumo regained his focus, eyes wide. He turned to the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, Minato was assigned as Kakashi's jounin-sensei? And I wasn't aware that he was dating the Uzumaki girl. Isn't she-" The Hokage sent him a sharp look before interrupting with a simple, "Yes."

An awkward moment passed that was broken by chuckles coming from the windowsill. "You must think we're blind to be claiming that you're my student's son, brat. You look a lot more like Sakumo. Besides, for that to be true, Minato would have had to get lucky when he was around ten. He may be precocious, but with that prudish attitude he's got, that's highly unlikely."

Naruto immediately turned and retorted, "That'd be true if this were my body, Ero-sennin, but guess what, it's not. Besides, anyone would look like a prude compared to you, you old pervert." Naruto stopped and his eyes widened once he finally got a look at the man.

Hiruzen was surprised to note that the boy's hands had started shaking and he seemed on the verge of tears. "Ero-sennin..." Naruto choked out and closed his eyes and swallowed before getting some control over himself. He raked a hand through his hair and let out a shaky sigh before giving the man a strained smile. "It's good to see you."

Jiraiya, on the other hand had stopped joking and started staring at the weird boy in front of him who was acting as if they knew each other. He turned to the Hokage, "Sensei, is this kid nuts? What's going on here and what'd you call me for?"

Hiruzen sighed, "Take a seat, Jiraiya." The other man did so, albeit reluctantly, "The body of the boy next to you belongs to Hatake Kakashi. However, Kakashi is sleeping right now. The person you were just talking to claims to be Uzumaki Naruto, the Rokudaime Hokage of sealed into Kakashi's body. He also claims to be Minato and Kushina's child. I had you called here to check the seal on Kakashi's stomach and tell me what you can about it."

The Hokage paused and sipped his tea serenely, calmly ignoring the gob smacked look on his student's face. After some time to get over his surprise Jiraiya spoke, "That means time-travel. Minato's the authority on that sort of thing, but I at least know that it would take a huge amount of chakra, which is why it hasn't been done before. Do we have any way to verify that he's who he says he is?" Sandaime hmmed, "He wanted to wait until you were here. Says that he intends to prove his identity by telling us what he knows of the Sannin, although I am wondering what he knows that isn't public knowledge." The men turned towards Naruto, "...well?" Sandaime inquired.

Naruto, who had been waiting quietly through all this, spoke up, "I know the most about Ero-sennin and Tsunade-Baa-chan, but I also know a bit that they've told me about Orochimaru, so who do you want me to start with?" Jiraiya's eye twitched and he looked a combination of annoyed and amused at the nicknames Naruto had given him and his blonde teammate.

Hiruzen answered, "Start with Orochimaru, then Tsunade and Jiraiya." Naruto nodded, "Alright. Perhaps the most personal thing I know about Orochimaru is something that Tsunade told me. Apparently, she bullied him into drinking with her not too long after Nawaki died. Well, knowing him, he probably stayed relatively sober, but probably because of how upset she was, he told her about a conversation he'd had with Jiji not too long after his parents died.

They were at their graves and Orochimaru saw a white snake's cast-off skin. Jiji told him that it was a symbol of rebirth and immortality and Orochimaru was fascinated. That was a defining day for him. It cemented his obsession with snakes and jutsu experimentation. It's why he obtained the snake summoning contract and also why he has invented a lot of snake jutsu." He paused and looked at Jiraiya, "You never talked much about Orochimaru, but you did tell me that you used to argue and compete with him a lot. You were both rivals and best friends." Naruto finished quietly. The three men exchanged looks, wondering about the boy's tone, but decided to wait to ask.

Hiruzen waited a moment before prompting, "And Tsunade?" Naruto immediately brightened up and continued, "Tsunade-baa-chan is the best medic in the world with super strength and mad dodging abilities. Her summon is Katsuyu and she is a gambling addict and a drunk. She has the worst luck in the world and always loses when she gambles, except when something bad is gonna happen, and then she has winning streaks. She also wears a permanent genjutsu to hide her age, which also serves to help her dodge bill collectors."

He chuckled. "She has one of the worst tempers I've ever seen, but she is a person who cares for her precious people more than anything. Which is why she's left the village. After losing her brother Nawaki and lover Dan, she lost faith in her profession. She blamed herself especially for not being able to save Dan and since then has developed hemophobia. She also falsely believes that it's her fault they died because she gave them the Shodai's necklace, which she wears. It is probably the only thing she wouldn't gamble besides her apprentice Shizune, at this point. Well, she believes the necklace is cursed, though. Both Nawaki and Dan wanted to be Hokage and so she gave them her necklace, but shortly after that they both died. She believes that the necklace kills anyone who isn't destined to become Hokage."

Naruto stopped and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Which begs the question of what she thinks about the fact that it hasn't killed her yet. The problem with he keeping the necklace, though, is that it also represents hope for her. She is afraid that if she entrusts the necklace to another person then they will die just like Nawaki and Dan. She believes that her hope for the future kills her loved ones, so she refuses to hope. She really deserves better than the life she's living now. I hope that I can help her again." He said sadly.

He shook his head and refocused, smiling again, "But in my time, she gave me her necklace and was training me to be her successor. She also entrusted this mission to me. Oh, that reminds me. I'm supposed to deliver a message to you from her, Jiji." Hiruzen cocked an eyebrow, "Oh? What is it?"

Naruto smiled, "She told me to remind you of a conversation you had with her when she was a genin and mourning her parents. You told her about a time when the Shodai and Nidaime stood with you overlooking Konoha and the Shodai told you that he felt that the villagers were a part of his body. That the trust they placed in him and the trust he placed in them was what it meant that he was Hokage. He told you to look after them like they were a part of you, too.

She also said that the Nidaime told you that when a member of the village dies, the others inherit their will to protect the village through their connection with each other and that that's the Will of Fire. She told me that you confessed then that you were always unsure of your worthiness to bear such a burden. She said to apologize for her for not understanding and not being there when you needed her. She also said that as Godaime Hokage she asks you to listen to me and trust me and that..."

Here Naruto paused and smiled while scratching the back of his head, embarrassed, "Quote, 'Naruto embodies the Will of Fire better than anyone else I've known.' End quote. Hehe, I really didn't want to say that myself, but she made me promise." He stopped talking and waited for a response. He didn't have long to wait.

Jiraiya and Hiruzen exchanged glances, surprised by the amount of trust implied by Tsunade to confide such things in anyone, even disregarding the rest of the message. She was not a woman who spoke of such matters easily, not even with them. Jiraiya cleared his throat and spoke, "Sensei, did you really have those conversations with them?"

Hiruzen looked speculative, "Yes, and unless he got her to talk about those moments through torture, which I doubt, it seems that she trusted him enough to confide in him to that extent." Jiraiya frowned, "Still, we should check on her just in case, right?"

Before Hiruzen could reply, Naruto jumped in, "Yah! You should send Team 7 with him, that way I can talk to her and convince her to return to Konoha again." Hiruzen shook his head wryly, amused by the boy's enthusiasm. "I'll think about it. First, you have to convince Jiraiya that you're who you say you are. If you convince him, then I'll fully accept your identity as well."

Naruto nodded and turned to look at his godfather, "I'm named after the character in your first book, Naruto. You were eating Ramen when you were inspired to write your book and that's why you named the main character Naruto. In the back of your book it says that your book was inspired by one of your students.

The quote 'But someday I'll break the curse. If there's such a thing as peace, I will find it.' is due to him. Your student's name is Nagato and he, Konan, and Yahiko are the three Ame orphans that you taught during the last war. He bears the Rinnegan and you believe him to be the Child of Prophecy that you've been traveling and looking for for so many years.

Speaking of the Child of Prophecy, you were told by the toad sage that one of your students would be the Child of Prophecy, the person who would decide the fate of the world and that a choice you would make would decide which way it would turn out. In order to come to the right decision, you were told to travel and write.

On a more personal note, Fukasaku-sama told me once that you took forever to learn to form Sage chakra because you couldn't maintain your concentration and that you never did get it perfect. He said you'd turn into a frog a little every time you went into Sage Mode. He also said that I had an even harder time concentrating than you did, but that it took me a lot less time to get it down.

By the way, I got Sage Mode down perfect; no warts or anything when I used it." Naruto grinned cheekily at Jiraiya before becoming solemn, "I always wanted to tell you that." Jiraiya looked at him calculatingly, not missing Naruto's use of the past tense, nor the way the boy was acting towards him. He turned to Hiruzen, "He couldn't have known about the dedication I was planning to put in the back of the book unless he'd read it in the future or read my mind. I haven't mentioned it to anyone. He must be telling the truth."

Hiruzen nodded, "I agree, but I would still like you to take a look at the seal." Jiraiya nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but Sakumo took that moment to speak up, "Naruto, is there any particular reason you've avoided telling us any more about the future?" he asked pointedly.

Naruto smiled at the man, "Yes, Sakumo-san. Konoha has an enemy that none of you are currently aware of. He is trying, to put it bluntly, to take over the world. I have to be careful what I tell you because the only real advantage we have against him is that he thinks his plan is a secret and will take his time to prepare and initiate it, but if you act now, we'll lose that advantage.

We need the time before he initiates his plan to prepare for it, and since I know what he's going to do, we can stop him when the time comes. But if we do force him to act, he'll destroy Konoha. We just don't have the manpower to stop him at this point. Not in the middle of a war. Before I tell you anything about the future, please promise me that you wont tip our hand before the time is right..." He looked at them pleadingly, knowing that their answer would decide everything. The three men looked at each other in alarm. Sarutobi answered for the three of them, "Before we make any promises, who is this enemy you speak of?" Naruto stared back at the Hokage with grim seriousness, "Uchiha Madara." The three men looked even more alarmed, at that.

Sakumo spoke, "As far as we know, he was killed by the Shodai." Naruto sighed, "If only. He was severely weakened by his battle with Hashirama-sama, but he escaped alive because of his Eiyo Mangekyou Sharingan, which also grants him immortality and a time-space ninjutsu almost equal to my father's.

He doesn't have much else going for him anymore after his battle with the Shodai, but he was still able to back us into a corner in the Fourth Great Shinobi War because by the time we realized what his plans were, it was almost too late to stop them. He had the element of surprise, decades of planning and dozens of powerful allies by the time we knew what he was doing and even if we'd managed to stop him, it would have cost us dearly. So, I decided to come here to even things out a bit."

Hiruzen thought about this for a bit. The boy seemed to be sincere, but he didn't like the idea of taking the boy's advice without knowing why it was given. At the same time he understood the boy's point. He would have to speak to the boy about the matter privately, sometime soon. "So you want to use your knowledge of his plans to set a trap for him." Naruto nodded, "Yes, but we have to be careful. I've got enough experience dealing with the bastard to know that he's cagey as hell. If he gets any hint that we're onto him, he'll retreat and change his plans. He's got all the time in the world to enact his plan, but we don't have nearly as much time to stop him.

In the words of a friend of mine, it's gonna be seriously troublesome to set up a surefire trap for Madara without giving away the fact that we know about his plans. But that's the only way to stop him for good. I figure that we should stick to only the most general preparations until the year before the attack."

He turned to Sakumo with a mischievous and disturbingly cheerful expression, "I hope you appreciate the risks I'm taking by coming back 7 years before the attack to stop you, Sakumo-san. There are a couple of others I want to save before the attack, but you're the only one I was sure I'd have a good chance at. As a result, though, if we interfere with Kushina and Minato too much, I might not be born and I really would like to get my body back eventually."

Sakumo looked somewhere between amused by the boy's attitude and chagrined, but before he could respond, Hiruzen's voice cut through the banter, "What makes you think that you'll be born now, at all?"

Naruto laughed a bit, "Well, according to my dad's research, time is localized a bit, whatever that means. So time around certain people and places can get stagnant and wont be affected easily, even in small ways. Considering that, apparently it's sometimes easier to make large-scale changes than more minor ones. So I guess theoretically, if we don't mess with the two of them too much, I'll probably still be born."

Jiraiya looked skeptical and grimaced a bit, "Well, that's kind of right. But you do know that time-space inertia has only been studied in regards to jutsu use and not time-travel, right?"

Naruto looked sheepish, "Uh, well, yeah, but time-travel was untested till now, so that's the best I have to go on. And for my sake, hopefully that effect will work in my favor. Anyway, I guess we can just compare my chakra to the baby's when the time comes and hope it's a match, cause I don't really like the idea of possessing my sibling's body from birth, that's just too creepy."

Hiruzen sighed, "Very well, that's a problem for another day. But you mentioned an attack in 7 years, what were you referring to?" Naruto sobered up at that. "October 10, the most decisive day in Konoha's history after the Battle at the Valley of the End. The day Madara unleashed the Kyuubi on Konoha. And also the day I was born." He looked straight at Sandaime, who's eyes widened in realization.

"He attacked her while she was giving birth." he whispered. Jiraiya and Sakumo exchanged uncomprehending looks. Naruto ignored them and gazed unerringly into Hiruzen's eyes. "Shall I explain it to them? As far as I'm aware only you, Koharu, Homura, her and I know the truth right now." Hiruzen took a deep breath and let it out, leaning back in his chair, "What happened to her in your time is your story to tell, Naruto."

Naruto sighed and did the same. "The story begins with the Battle at the Valley of the End. Hashirama actually faced both Madara and the nine-tails in that battle. He managed to wrest control of Kyuubi from Madara and his wife, Uzumaki Mito, used Uzumaki-style Fuin-jutsu to seal the Kyuubi into herself. Around a decade ago, my mother was brought to Konoha to take Mito-sama's place as the new Kyuubi no Jinchuuriki.

But when a female Jinchuuriki gives birth, their chakra becomes unstable and the seal they bear weakens considerably. Madara attacked moments after my mother gave birth to me and took me hostage before my father could reinforce the seal. Madara managed to use me to lure my father away from my mother's side long enough to take her and extract the Kyuubi.

My mother didn't die right away because of her strong chakra and after rescuing her, my father went to stop the Kyuubi which Madara had summoned in the village. Before he could stop it, though, Madara interfered and forced my father to fight him instead. My father managed to injure Madara and free the nine-tails from his control, but by the time he returned, a lot of damage had been done to the village. He teleported Kyuubi away from the village and my mother used some of her remaining chakra to hold Kyuubi down.

She planning to die with Kyuubi inside her and keep it from reappearing in the world for a time, but after meeting Madara, my dad was worried that Madara would use Kyuubi again in the future. So he used the Shiki Fuin, a jutsu I don't think he's invented yet, to permanently seal half the Kyuubi's chakra inside the Shinigami in exchange for sacrificing his soul. He sealed the other half of Kyuubi's chakra inside me along with the rest of his and my mom's, as fail-safes.

He hoped that I could use it to fight Madara one day, although I don't think time-travel is exactly what he had in mind. And that's how I became the third Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi." He took a breath and saw the horrified looks on the faces around him. He sighed, "Although I didn't find out that my dad was the Yondaime until a couple years ago, nor that my mother was a Jinchuuriki too, this all happened eighteen years ago for me and I don't intend to let it happen again. Madara will come for the Kyuubi on the day my mother's child is born. We'll be ready this time."

Naruto nodded like that settled the matter and tilted his head to the side, "But like I said, any trap we set will hinge on my mom and dad's cooperation and they're not ready to face that yet. You, understandably, wont want to make my dad Hokage until after the war and they probably shouldn't be told until I'm conceived, anyway. So, I think it's best to just focus on strengthening Konoha and weakening our enemies until that time comes, and I think Tsunade and Orochimaru are the best places to start."

He thought for a second and nodded again, "Yah. Them and Suna..." Hiruzen cocked an eyebrow at that. "What about Suna?" Naruto refocused on the middle-aged man, "I've got an idea as to how we can bargain with Suna to form a peace alliance with them. I know who killed their Third Kazekage. If we slip them that information, they might enter peace talks with us." All three men were looking alert at that, "It just might work, if we release the information as an anonymous tip. Who did it and how did you find out?" Sakumo asked. Naruto smirked bitterly, "I found out because he's a future associate of Madara's that kidnapped and nearly killed a friend of mine. Another friend of mine fought him with Chiyo-sama and she recognized one of his puppets as the preserved corpse of the Sandaime Kazekage.

That's her grandson's favorite hobby; he likes to turn skilled ninja into puppets while they're still alive in order to preserve their powers for his own use. The only thing that will thrill Akasuna no Sasori more is when he figures out how to turn himself into a puppet." The men were giving him wide eyes and he sighed, "Yah, he's a nutcase with a collection of human puppets that will eventually number in the hundreds and he's getting away with it right under Suna's nose.

All they have to do is arrest him and take a look at his puppet collection. If they don't mess it up, they'll be able to capture him and his evidence in one go. Warn them to be careful, though, he's probably already s-ranked and it might be best if we get Tsunade to drop by in case Sasori manages to poison anyone. A good reason to get her to return to Konoha as soon as possible."

Naruto frowned suddenly, "Although, it might be best to do something about Orochimaru first." Jiraiya frowned in return, "What are you talking about?" Naruto sighed deeply and turned to Sakumo. "Sakumo-san, could you please wait outside? I think it'd be best if they hear this in private." Sakumo turned to the Hokage, who nodded slightly.

After he'd left, Naruto turned his chair so that he was directly facing the two men. He looked them in the eyes and began, "When I was a child, I was hated and feared by the majority of this village because it was widely known that I was the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki. I grew up as an orphan and I was largely alone until I became a ninja. Before that, you were one of only four people that were kind to me, Jiji. My first good memories are of you checking up on me at the orphanage from time to time. You always shared your wisdom with me freely and never dismissed my dreams, no matter how foolish they sounded."

He turned to Jiraiya, "You were the first teacher I had that believed that I could be a great ninja. Iruka was kind to me and Kakashi taught me teamwork, but you taught me how to never give up. You taught me how to be a ninja that could protect his friends and his nindo. Neither of you know me now, but to me, you're family and I don't want to see you get hurt." He closed his eyes and sighed again.

Hiruzen frowned for the first time in the entire conversation, "You're acting like you have news that's worse than Madara still being alive. Whatever it is, just tell us and we'll deal with it." Naruto nodded and looked straight at Hiruzen, avoiding Jiraiya's eyes. "Jiji, Orochimaru has and will continue to commit crimes that make what Sasori's done look like a child's game."

The room went deadly silent. Sarutobi could see in the boy's eyes that he wasn't lying and Naruto watched the oddly young looking man age and become more recognizable right before his eyes. Jiraiya on the other hand, merely sat stunned for a moment before exploding, "You're lying!" he yelled and pulled the boy into the air by his shirt. "Do you really expect us to believe that bullshit?"

Naruto just looked into his god-father's eyes and flinched at the familiar pain he saw there. It was like looking at himself in the mirror after being betrayed by Sasuke. He could tell that the man's anger wasn't because he didn't believe him, but because he did. "Jiraiya." Hiruzen called softly and Jiraiya froze before putting the boy down and slumping back into his chair. "Do you have any proof?" He asked in the same soft and weary tone.

Naruto sighed and began in a flat voice, "No, he's years away from conducting the experiment that got him caught and records of his previous experiments were never recovered. What is clear, however, is that for decades before he was caught, he'd been kidnapping civilians and Shinobi for use in his jutsu experiments. He did it under cover of the wars, that's how he never got caught. Even at this point, he's probably already been experimenting for over a decade. He's obsessed with immortality and doesn't care what he has to do to achieve it.

There's no redeeming him; the experiment that got him caught was one that resulted in the deaths of 59 babies and at this point, he's probably already started planning it in case he ever gets the chance to carry it out. Also, I'll warn you ahead of time not to let him go when you decide to deal with him. After he became a missing-nin, his crimes only got worse. He joined Madara for a time before forming his own village in Rice Country called Oto, assassinating the Fourth Kazekage and impersonating him in order to trick Suna into helping Oto invade Konoha during my first Chuunin exam. We took heavy losses and he also managed to kill you before he escaped, although you sealed away his arms with the Shiki Fuin before you died. And even though Itachi managed to kill him when I was sixteen, his legacies posed a threat to Konoha before I left that was only exceeded by Madara himself.

I don't want to tell you to kill your best friend and student, but I can't claim to not understand how you feel. Because of Madara and Orochimaru's evil, that is a choice that I have already had to make and if it weren't for Madara's intervention, I would have already killed my best friend. Take your time and think about it, but remember what I've told you."

Naruto got up and went to the door, letting Sakumo back into the room. Sakumo took one look at the grim and defeated faces of the two men and the impassive expression on his son's face and sat down without comment. The silence in the room stretched on until Naruto spoke again in a much lighter tone, "Well, I think that's enough earth shattering revelations for one day. Kakashi-kun's body needs to rest after the seal transfer and he still has to meet his team..."

Hiruzen interrupted, "Minato's bringing his team here at ten a.m. tomorrow morning. Meet me and Jiraiya here to continue this discussion at nine, and I don't think I need to remind any of you not to speak of what we've discussed today to anyone."

Naruto chuckled, "Hai, Hokage-sama. Better make that eleven though, Jiji, Obito makes a habit of being chronically late by a good two hours, he probably wont show up until noon." Hiruzen frowned at him, although he looked slightly amused despite the news he'd just gotten, "Then we'll have even more time to discuss things."

Naruto groaned, "Great. I can't wait." He turned to Jiraiya awkwardly, "Ero-sennin," he hesitated, "You know, I generally disapprove of your research, but for tonight just try not to get caught, alright? I'll see you both in the morning." And with a smile he left with Sakumo.

Jiraiya turned to Hiruzen, a sober expression on his face. "That kid really does know us well sensei. Enough so that he managed to get us both to forget to check that seal of his." Hiruzen gave Jiraiya a wan smile. "I think he just forgot, himself, Jiraiya. He's had a day as long as ours, I think. Or do you not believe that he is who he says he is?"

Jiraiya sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I wish I didn't, but there's no other explanation. Besides, we're ninja, we deal with the impossible on a regular basis and this is no different. I just don't want him to be right. Not about Minato and Kushina or about Madara and Orochimaru."

Hiruzen sighed, "Yes, I feel the same, but we don't have that luxury. The boy was plainly telling the truth. I'm not sure he even knows how to lie. What disturbs me more is that it seemed that he was leaving a great deal out of his story, in particular regarding his own experiences and Madara's plans."

Jiraiya looked thoughtful, "You're right." He shrugged, "We'll deal with it tomorrow. I'm going to do as the boy suggested and get back to my research. Judging from how he acted, he's just as much of a prude as his father. Pretty soon I'll have them both nagging me."

Jiraiya scrunched up his nose in annoyance at the thought and jumped out the window without another word. Hiruzen sighed once again and walked over to look out at the village he'd been responsible for for over thirty years. It was going to be a long, sleepless night, he could already tell.

They were halfway to Kakashi's house when Sakumo turned to him. "Is Kakashi still in there?" Naruto's eyes widened, "Yah, of course, sorry about that. I'm still getting used to the whole not my body thing. You'd think the trouble I'm having walking would be enough to clue me in."

Naruto preceded to wake up Kakashi in his mind and switch places with him. 'Kakashi, I'll be meditating and trying not to die of boredom if you need me for anything.' Not waiting for an answer, he stopped listening to what was going on around him. It was going to be a very long 7 years.

Kakashi and Sakumo walked together not talking much. Finally, when they were nearing their home Kakashi spoke, "I don't remember the meeting with Hokage-sama. What happened?" Sakumo cast him a glance before answering, "Naruto put you to sleep because there was some sensitive information being discussed."

Kakashi seemed to mull this over for a bit, "So Hokage-sama has been convinced of his identity." Sakumo nodded, "Yes. He gave them enough information that only the two of them would know to make the only explanation time-traveler mind-reading and oddly enough, time-travel is the more believable of the two options, all things considered."

Kakashi nodded back, "I see. What does Hokage-sama want me to do concerning him?" Sakumo thought for a bit, "He didn't say but he wants you to meet him and Jiraiya tomorrow morning at nine in the Tower. I suggest, for now, you just let me know if he does anything strange. There will most likely be an ANBU watching while you sleep, just in case he tries anything, so keep that in mind."

Kakashi nodded again, "Hai, Otou-san." The two Hatake's entered their house and after a short meal went to seek their respective beds.

R&R

Review Response:

InARealPickle:

About Kakashi's age, I'm aware of it, but since I have to explain the relationship between Kakashi and Sakumo, I decided to change his age to fit my backstory better. Also, the change is in relation to Itachi's progress as well; he graduated from the academy at 7 and was made an ANBU captain by 13, which is ridiculous in peacetime, but in my story he'll graduate by 6, see the tail end of the war with Iwa, see the Kyuubi at 8 and massacre his family at 14. The war with Iwa lasts longer in my story and that's why Sakumo's failed mission has already happened before Kakashi's graduation. Team 7 will be in it almost from the beginning and with field promotions, Kakashi will still make Jounin by 13, but there's no way Sandaime would let a five year old out into the middle of a war, at least not until the Uchiha clan forces the issue with Itachi... Cheers.


	4. Introducing Team Minato

Sorry 'bout the late ch. I had to come up with a lot of backstory and plot to pull off this ch., since they're discussing their plans. Didn't make it to the bell test. It'll be first thing next ch. Pairing poll for this fic in my profile. It's at no pairing right now, so if you want one, vote. Umm, FYI I don't do lemons and I'm not much for the sappy romance stuff, so keep that in mind when voting. Also, expect a ch. of Red Haze and another one for this fic by the end of this week. Cheers.

Disclaimed. Although I took last week off for "research" purposes, I am still not Masashi Kishimoto.

"Naruto...Naruto, wake up." Naruto shifted and groaned out, "Kakashi-sensei, come on, let me have five more minutes."

"I'm not your sensei, I'm your...host." Kakashi said emotionlessly. That finally got his attention. Naruto groggily opened his eyes to stare into a guttering fire. He remembered how he'd gotten here in the first place and blinked. 'Who knew that imaginary fires could go out?' he wondered. He shook his head and turned his attention to his host. "What's up?"

He got the feeling that Kakashi wanted to roll his eyes at him. "Meeting." He said shortly, "Sandaime-sama and Jiraiya-sama are waiting for you."

"Oh." He responded intelligently, "Got it. I'll take over and put you to sleep then? The discussion should be rather sensitive." The boy didn't answer and Naruto sighed mentally as he did as he'd said. 'We're gonna have to work on that. I can't believe Kakashi was such a stuck up bastard when he was a kid. Hmm, I can't wait till he meets Obito.' He grinned gleefully at that thought.

He was still day-dreaming when he heard someone clear their throat to get his attention. He looked at the Sandaime who was raising an eyebrow at him, "Did something good happen?" The man asked curiously.

Naruto laughed a little sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, "Kakashi-kun's attitude is hilarious, is all. I get the feeling it would be very easy to tease him. The Kakashi I knew was very much the opposite, you see." He shook his head with a fond smile and got serious. Looking around the very familiar Hokage's office, he saw Jiraiya was leaning against the wall, watching him with an impassive look on his face. Naruto hadn't paid much attention the day before, but the man looked a lot younger than he remembered. He was a little less large and his face no longer looked as worn as it had. Jiraiya's face also lacked it's usual cheerful cast.

One of the best things about Ero-sennin had been how jovial he was in all but the worst circumstances. His lighthearted perversity had oddly enough reflected a resilient strength that could only have come from a great deal of suffering and experience. This younger Jiraiya lacked that to a large extent. He hadn't come to terms with his team-mate's betrayal and all his students were still among the living. Kakashi-sensei was the same with his impervious eye-smiles and the non-chalant attitude he adopted in even the worst situations. Yamato-taichou had been right, Kakashi had downright showered them with his confidence in them and his reassurances. It was something that Naruto was truly coming to appreciate now that he was without it for the first time in half a decade. 'I guess it's my turn to provide that reassurance to them.'

With that in mind he smiled complacently at the untrusting man by the window, bringing a hand up to his face and letting his eyes widen when he finally felt the cloth covering his mouth. "Dammit, again with the friggin' mask! I should have known better than to mention that!" He slapped his forehead in consternation, earning dubious looks from the two men in the room. He noticed this and shook his head a bit. "Don't worry about it. I foolishly mentioned to Kakashi-kun that his older self wore a mask and it looks like he's decided it's cool to hide his facial expressions or something. I'd better watch it or next thing I know he'll be reading porn just like Kakashi-sensei."

He huffed a little and then asked, "So, should we get on with it? Granted, I'm sure we'll have plenty of time thanks to Obito, but there's no reason to waste the daylight." He removed the mask and breathed a sigh of relief. "I really hate masks." Jiji looked vastly amused by the byplay. "You are aware that we've been waiting for you, right?"

Naruto merely grinned at him and Jiraiya spoke up, finally losing patience. "So, Rokudaime, we've checked your seal; it's an eight-trigrams seal much like those used in the former Whirlpool country. That's a seal that is currently known only to a few Konoha shinobi, so that lends more credence to your story. The seal is functioning normally and poses no threat to Kakashi's health."

He paused and the look on his face hardened. "Now, since you're the one who claims that something needs to be done about Orochimaru, what do you suggest? Surely you don't expect us to kill him without evidence?" He scoffed. It hurt Naruto to see his sensei so angry towards him, but he could understand it. He merely smiled sympathetically at the man and turned to the Sandaime. Jiji nodded at him, giving him permission to speak.

He returned his attention to Jiraiya and said bluntly. "I think that you should handle the investigation yourself. You know the most about him and when you become convinced is when his guilt is assured. I know you wont cover up his activities and you're one of the few that wont get caught by him." Naruto looked away from Jiraiya, staring out the window with a haunted look in his eyes as he continued. "Besides, he's your best friend. You have to see for yourself. And in a way, it's your responsibility to him to see what he's become and end it." He whispered the last before giving Jiraiya a determined and encouraging look. The man looked somewhat shaken, but nodded.

Jiraiya looked at Hiruzen. "I agree, I'll start looking into it as soon as this meeting is finished." He looked determined to prove Orochimaru's innocence and Hiruzen visibly hesitated before nodding. "I'll leave it to you, then."

He gave Naruto a searching look and then changed the subject. "I'd like to hear more about your plans, Naruto, as well as more about you personally. It's obvious that you were avoiding the subject yesterday, so we'd like to know why now." Naruto looked pained for a second before sighing and replying honestly.

"It's not me that I was trying to avoid talking about." Hiruzen raised an eyebrow again and Naruto continued hurriedly with a wince. "It's the best friend that I mentioned earlier. Well, him and Ero-sennin. My parents were the only ones who knew that Madara was behind the attack and they didn't get a chance to tell anyone before they died. The villagers ended up blaming the Uchiha clan.

I wouldn't be surprised if Madara had something to do with it, actually. He had a special hatred for his clan because it remained loyal to Konoha and Hashirama when he wanted more political power. The details are complicated, but basically Madara succeeded in getting the entire Uchiha clan wiped out, except for two. The elder of the two brothers, Uchiha Itachi, took it upon himself to join Madara and spy on him, while the younger, my genin teammate Uchiha Sasuke, remained in Konoha.

That is until Orochimaru put a seal on him. After Sasuke was marked by the cursed seal, he betrayed Konoha for the power that Orochimaru offered. Orochimaru wanted his body for his immortality jutsu so that he could gain the power of the Sharingan, but instead Sasuke killed him when the time came. Itachi died around that time and so there was nothing to keep Sasuke from joining Madara. He became a central part of Madara's plan and because of Madara's interference I was unable to kill him when we fought a little over a month before I came here." Naruto looked solemn as he finished his summary and it wasn't lost of the two men that there were glaring holes in his story.

Hiruzen was somewhat less shocked to hear about the destruction of the Uchiha clan than he might have been. After all, after hearing of Madara's plans yesterday, the destruction of one clan seemed rather tame. Hiruzen eyed the boy's closed expression and decided that they wouldn't get anymore out of Naruto on the subject for the moment. Instead he asked, "Why didn't you want to talk about Jiraiya?"

Naruto got that pained look on his face again and obviously restrained himself from looking over at the man in question. "Ero-sennin was my shishou from when I was thirteen to when he died fulfilling his part of the prophecy when I was sixteen." He said it softly, staring at the Hokage's desk the entire time. Hiruzen couldn't help thinking how boy looked all of six saying this even as he felt his back go rigid in shock.

Jiraiya answered first, bursting out excitedly. "What! You saw the prophecy fulfilled? What was the result? Was it Nagato after all?" He'd undoubtedly heard the part about him dying, but was more interested in the outcome of his life's work than the fact that he would die accomplishing it.

Naruto smiled at him sadly, "You did great. Because you kept believing and didn't give up, disaster was averted." Jiraiya had apparently forgotten that he was an adult and was practically jumping for joy. "So my book will change the world!" He cheered.

Hiruzen, however, didn't join in. He continued to watch the boy for a bit before quietly observing, "You're leaving out something important. You're going to have to tell us eventually if you want our help." Naruto looked at him with some annoyance, "You could've let him enjoy it for a bit longer, Jiji. Besides, I was enjoying watching my sensei act like an even bigger idiot than me."

He smirked at Jiraiya earning an offended, "Oi!" from the toad sage. "Naruto." The Sandaime said warningly, using the same voice he'd used on Jiraiya the day before.

Naruto slumped a little, reluctantly complying with the man's command. "There are two children of prophecy, in a sense. One is Nagato and the other is me. Ero-sennin didn't give up even at the end and believed in me, so I in turn chose to believe in what he'd believed in. When Nagato saw my determination, he entrusted his dream of peace to me as well and sacrificed himself to bring back all the people that had died that day as a result of Akatsuki's attack. I don't know if the prophecy will stay the same, though. It hurts my head to think about. One or both of us might even receive a summons from the toad sage sometime soon." He finished, rubbing his forehead in agitation.

Again the two men exchanges glances, knowing that Naruto was leaving important information out, but the pointed glare the boy sent them practically dared them to press further, so they left things as they were. For now. "Hey, what did you look like before?" Jiraiya asked abruptly. Naruto was confused, but agreed to henge into, of all people, himself. It was a little weird, doing jutsu in another person's body, but Kakashi had excellent chakra control so the chakra flowed smoother than he was used to.

After he was done, Jiraiya whistled, "You look a lot like Minato, alright." He paused and then added, "Not to mention a huge idiot. What's up with the orange, anyway?" The large grin that had been stretching Naruto's whisker marks turned into a scowl and he sat back down in his chair, crossing his arms and huffing loudly. "Orange is my favorite color! Besides, it was your future self that gave me these clothes and your red isn't much better, you hypocrite."

Now it was Jiraiya's turn to scowl, "At least I change when I go out on combat missions, brat. I get the feeling that you always wore that." Naruto pouted and whined, "Shut up!" before Hiruzen cleared his throat yet again to draw the bickering ninjas' attention.

"We still need to discuss where we will go from here and we don't have a lot of time before Kakashi-kun needs to go meet with his team." Naruto forced himself to focus once again, but it was hard. He'd been enjoying joking around with Ero-sennin more than he'd enjoyed anything in awhile and was secretly reluctant to end their petty fighting. Or maybe not so secretly, considering the gleam in the third's eye. And if the third had noticed there was a fair possibility that Jiraiya was doing it on purpose.

He took a glance at the man only to notice the same calculating look he'd received the day before disappear behind a more serious but still somewhat amused mask. Ninja games, huh? Underneath the underneath and all that. He snorted and shook his head in amusement. Trust ninja to turn something as simple as teasing each other into a chance to manipulate and gather information. Well, at least the man was less angry at him if he was going out of his way to reassure him at all. Hearing about Sasuke and that Naruto was the Child of Prophecy probably had something to do with that.

"Will you assign team seven to retrieve Tsunade?" He asked the Third, getting straight to the point. The Sandaime looked to be considering it. "Hmm, yes, but first I want them to get some experience in the field. Once they finish a few c-ranks, I'll clear them for the b-rank retrieval mission. Besides, if it doesn't take him too long, I want Jirairya to come with you after he finishes his investigation. She'll be a lot more likely to listen to you if he's with you."

Naruto laughed, "No kidding, I wouldn't want to get on her bad side. I'm still smarting from the last time I pissed her off." Naruto thought about that for a moment and screwed up his face. "Huh? Well, I guess I'm not anymore. Weird. Ok, so what about getting a message to Suna?"

This time it was Jiraiya who answered, "We're not technically at war with Suna at all, right now, although we're not on the best terms with them because of the last war. They've been keeping their head's down ever since Iwa attacked them after the Sandaime Kazekage died. So it wouldn't be a problem to just send Suna's council an encrypted message. The problem is that if we claim to have information about who killed their Kazekage, they would most likely suspect us. In fact, I think the only reason they haven't attacked us yet is because they haven't chosen a new Kazekage yet." The man frowned in thought. "On the other hand, if the information is passed to them from an anonymous source, chances are that they will dismiss it."

Naruto let out a frustrated sigh, "There's got to be a way...if only I could meet with Chiyo-baa. She wouldn't trust a stranger, but she might keep a better eye on Sasori and if anyone can catch him, it's her."

Hiruzen raised his eyebrows at him incredulously, "You're familiar with Chiyo the Poisoner?" Naruto smiled amusedly, "Yah, nice old lady if I remember correctly." He paused before admitting, "Although her laugh was a bit creepy, now that I think about it."

While Hiruzen was shaking his head at Naruto, Jiraiya looked thoughtful. "We need bait. Something that wont provoke an attack, but will earn a private audience with her." The three sat in silence for a few minutes, thinking it over before a devious grin spread slowly over Naruto's face. "I know just the thing. They may be trying to keep their heads down, but they're also angry at Iwa right now. And Chiyo-baa's opinion carries a lot of weight with the council; her brother's a councillor as well and she's well-respected. If we can convince her to meet with us to discuss a possible alliance against Iwa, then we can kill two birds with one stone by telling her about Sasori too."

He paused and Jiraiya looked at him impatiently, a small scowl on his face. "So how do you plan to convince them that it's not a trap? There are any number of ways that such a meeting could be used against them. Even if it were straight-forward, we could easily just be trying to make it seem that there was an alliance to get Iwa's attention off of us." Naruto grinned,

"That's where the bait you mentioned comes in. You see, Chiyo-baa's son and his wife were killed by Sakumo in the last war. She hates him and when she met Kakashi in my time, she immediately attacked him. So, we offer a hostage to ensure that the meeting will remain aboveboard. It'll get the council's attention, as well, that one of Konoha's clan heirs is being offered as a hostage at all. Actually, on second thought, if we're vague as to the actual reason for the meeting, it might be better. If we just tell them that we have information that they'll want and are willing to offer it to further relations between our countries, they'll probably be so curious that they'll take the risk." Naruto finished with an excited gleam in his eyes.

Hiruzen considered him carefully. "You're willing to offer Kakashi and yourself as hostages to obtain the meeting?" Naruto's eyes hardened in determination, "There are two ways to keep Madara from gaining enough power to execute his plan. One is to protect his targets: the Jinchuuriki. The other is to keep him from getting the allies he had before while we gather allies ourselves. We have to do both and somehow set up a trap for him all without alerting him to the fact that his plan's been compromised.

He wont go after the Jinchuuriki for awhile, hopefully, and luckily they can mostly look after themselves so the best we can do right now is to try to make peace with the other nations and stop him from completing the formation of Akatsuki. As far as I know, he's already got Zetsu, Hidan, Kakuzu and maybe Kisame. That leaves first Sasori and Orochimaru, then Pain and Tenchi, and later Itachi and Deidara. We've got to keep them from joining Akatsuki. If we can do that, it'll buy us time to figure out how to kill the persistent fucker. While I was preparing to come back, I got as much information from our allies on Akatsuki's background as I could. Sasori joined a few years from now officially, but there's a good chance he's already in contact with Madara and he has a nasty habit of placing spies. By the time I was twelve, he had a spy in the genin ranks in Konoha, and a spy on the council in Suna. We need to do something before he escapes to Madara's protection."

Jiraiya crossed his arms and frowned at him. "That's all well and good, but you are aware that she might kill Kakashi anyway, right? If she hates Sakumo and Kakashi as much as you say..." Naruto smiled, "She might be called the poisoner, but she's completely dedicated to Suna. She wont do anything to endanger it. That's also why I trust her to stop Sasori. She did in my time, after all."

Hiruzen shook his head, but didn't contradict him. "Alright, I'll send them our proposal and we'll see how they respond. Is there anything else that we need to discuss?"  
Naruto sat silently for a minute, thinking. "We'll need to warn the Jinchuuriki of the danger at some point, but that can probably wait. We're already doing as much about the war with Iwa as we can and Kumo's still recovering from the incident with their Jinchuuriki, so...that only leaves Kiri." He looked between the two men grimly.

"I hate to admit it, but I'm not sure what we can do about them at the moment. The bloodline purges that Yagura's carrying out right now..."Naruto scowled heavily. "Madara's behind them. He's controlling the Yondaime Mizukage and using Kiri as a base for Akatsuki to form and operate from. He'll abandon it once he's prepared, but for now it's his territory. We can't just let him have it, but I'll be damned if I know what we can do about it without declaring war on Kiri and we obviously couldn't handle that right now. Not to mention it would be stupid to go to war with our future allies."

By the time he had finished, both men looked startled. "Madara has control of Kiri and you're just mentioning this now?" Jiraiya practically shouted. Naruto sighed and shrugged, "Like I said, I don't know what we can do about it right now. Not even the Kiri-nin I met knew how long Madara had been there. I want to help the bloodline clans of Kiri, especially since I was friends with a few people from them, but anything we do while Madara's in power is likely to provoke a war."

The Sandaime hmmed, and frowned in concentration. "That is problematic. As long as we're at war with Iwa, we can't afford to do anything overt. The best we might be able to manage is to smuggle a few bloodline wielders out of Mizu no Kuni, but we'd have to be very careful. We can't risk exposure and we'd have to be careful not to help too many or Kiri would realize what we're up to. We also couldn't hide them here without making it obvious who helped them."

Naruto perked up at that. "What about the wave? If we could quietly help a few get to wave, they could handle the rest themselves." He grimaced. "Although if they're caught even once, Yagura will destroy Nami no Kuni. Definitely not something I want to risk."

Jiraiya smirked, "I have contacts in Kaminari no kuni that might be willing to help with that. If the refugees go through wave and lightning country first, we can bring them to Hi no Kuni without worrying about it getting back to Madara that we're involved."

Naruto nodded before replying, "I know of a man in wave who is brave enough to house and feed them as long as we make sure it isn't traced back to him and guarantee his family's protection. We might have to owe him a favor as well, but he's a good man and will only ask for help if his family is in danger."

Sandaime nodded. "Good, contacting him will be team seven's first mission, then. Jiraiya, send messages to your contacts in Kaminari and let them know we might need them to discreetly offer temporary shelter to a few people in the coming months. Also, do you happen to have any established contacts in Kiri? The hardest part in all of this will be tracking down the kekkei genkai bearers in the first place."

Jiraiya scowled, "Yah, I've been thinking about that. There are a few people I can contact, but I doubt they'll have much information-"

"Terumi." Naruto cut in, earning a glare from the Toad Sannin. "We just need to find the remnants of the Terumi clan. Terumi Mei, the Godaime Mizukage, told me once that her father managed to escape with her when the bloodline purges began. Apparently, he helped a lot of others escape pursuit before he was finally killed, although they didn't really have anywhere to escape to. Thankfully, Mei was able to look after herself after he was killed and later took down Yagura, but if we can find Terumi-san, he'll be able to help us." Naruto grinned cheerfully.

"Alright, I'll see if my contacts in Kiri can track him down." Jiraiya said with a sigh, "It looks like we have our work cut out for us." Naruto nodded, "I think that's all, for now at least." The Sandaime sighed and eyed his paperwork resignedly, "Alright then, if you think of anything else let us know, Naruto." He turned to Jiraiya and said a little regretfully, "I expect regular reports on the progress of your assignment, Jiraiya." Jiraiya nodded grudgingly and hopped out the window before they could say anything else. -

Naruto sat waiting for Kakashi's team to arrive, listening to the comforting swish swoosh of the Sandaime's brush-strokes. He had the distinct feeling he was forgetting something important and thought back to his friends. He already missed them, unsurprisingly. He just hoped that he could make sure they were born into a better world than last time. And that he was lucky enough to see them again. He sat, lost in good memories for a bit before swearing silently. 'Fuck. Sai!' Of course. How could he forget about Danzo?

He groaned and banged his head softly against the Sandaime's desk, carefully avoiding jostling the old man's (or, more accurately, the middle-aged man's) papers. The Sandaime paused in his writing. "Is something wrong, Naruto?" Naruto sighed, "There's something I forgot to mention." He grimaced. "It's about Danzo, Jiji. I think he's been using his Ne ANBU to undertake missions without your approval. I don't know how far he's taken it at this point, but in my time Danzo made a deal with Orochimaru to get the Shodai's cells grafted into his arm so he could use Mokuton and had a Sharingan eye, as well as several more in his arm. He kept them hidden under bandages.

He also sold the identities of the regular ANBU to him when I was sixteen just so he could get an operative of his close enough to assassinate Sasuke. And he cut a deal with Hanzo a few years from now that resulted in the death of one of Ero-sennin's students, Yahiko. At some point you ordered him to disband Ne and he unofficially kept them as his own private operatives. There was also some speculation that he was involved with the situation in Kiri somehow, but I don't know how accurate that is. I do know, however, that he was the main force in Konoha behind the Uchiha massacre that Madara engineered.

My friend Sai was a member of Ne and even after the seal on his tongue was deactivated, all he could really tell us about the man was that he was extremely paranoid and claimed to be working for the protection of Konoha. I think the man does genuinely believe that he's acting in Konoha's best interest. The problem is that he thinks that the good of Konoha involves him becoming Hokage, turning ninja into mindless tools that would sacrifice their comrades at the drop of a pin and working with Konoha's enemies whenever he finds it beneficial. He even got himself elected Hokage by the Daimyo when Tsunade-baa-chan fell into a coma for awhile after Pain destroyed Konoha.

And then he used his Sharingan and nearly managed to get himself elected the leader of the Alliance of the Five Nations, as well. Sasuke assassinated him afterwards in retaliation for the Uchiha Massacre and thankfully Baa-chan woke from her coma, but we came dangerously close to having him in charge of the whole military of the five great nations and I don't want to think about how that might have gone. I know that Danzo has done a lot for Konoha in the past, but I think his methods do more harm than good and that he's too power-hungry to really be trustworthy. Whatever the case, I think you should keep a very close eye on him, Jiji." Naruto looked at Hiruzen with a worried look on his face, waiting for his response.

The Sandaime had listened intently throughout Naruto's rant and sat still for a long while afterwards with an odd look on his face. Finally, he sighed. "I agree, Naruto-kun. Danzo has always been passionate about Konoha's defense and tends towards a very militaristic view of the world. If he's not kept in check, he will probably do exactly as you have said. And I'm afraid I wont be able to keep him in check forever, either. In the last few years he's become more and more contemptuous of my leadership abilities. I don't want to, but if what you've said is true, then soon I will be forced to actively restrict his power. It will be difficult, though, because my old teammates have tended towards agreeing with him more and more lately. Especially since that incident with Sakumo. They have become jaded by war, I fear, and are more inclined to agree with Danzo's extreme ideas than before."

Naruto nodded, "Yah, they were still cautious around him when I knew them, but by the time Baa-chan took office, they definitely seemed to have lost a lot of faith in the Hokage title. I think that was mostly due to my father's and your deaths, though. But Sakumo-san will regain their confidence now, I'm sure of it. And you're a great Hokage, Jiji. You just have to rekindle their will of fire like you kindled it in me and the others before." He grinned widely, "You were the one that raised me and the others so strong, Jiji. Hell, I probably would have lost hope when I was just a little kid if it weren't for you."

The Sandaime laughed at his ebullience, despite the seriousness of the conversation. "I find that hard to believe, Naruto." Naruto pouted a bit. "It's true, you were great, Jiji!" Before Hiruzen could respond, there was a knock on the door. Naruto quickly canceled his henge and pulled up Kakashi's mask. "Enter!" the Hokage called.

Akiko opened the door enough to stick her head through. Her brown hair was up in a bun with little strands coming loose and her brown eyes held exasperation. "Hokage-sama, team seven's been waiting awhile and the boy is getting quite loud about his displeasure, even though he showed up late. Do you want me to ask them to come back later?"

Hiruzen looked at the clock and had to resist cursing. It was already 11:10 and he had a council meeting at 11:30 that he was unprepared for. He turned back to Akiko, "Kakashi-kun will be out in a moment. And after that could you help me find the files for the next council meeting?" Akiko straightened her glasses and responded with, "Right away, Hokage-sama." before clicking the door shut.

"You'd better get going." the Hokage said to Naruto. The boy collapsed back in his chair before pulling himself upright and muttering groggily, "I'm never going to get used to that."  
"You'd be surprised what you can get used to, Kakashi-kun." The boy just stared at him blankly and he said pointedly, "Your team's waiting for you outside."

The boy continued to stare for a moment before standing and bowing abruptly. "My apologies, Hokage-sama, please excuse me." With that the boy left and the Hokage relutantly got back to his job.-

While he was waking up he heard a warning that caused him to stare dumbly at the Hokage for far too long. 'Kakashi, you're team leader is a relative of mine, so don't be startled by the resemblance. Remember my presence here is a secret for the time being. Enjoy your test!' Naturo's voice sounded gleeful and Kakashi knew that was not a good thing for him. He recollected himself long enough to apologize to the Hokage for his inattention and leave the office.

'What test?' He thought at the man, but receiving no response he refocused on his surroundings. He immediately regretted it, however, when his vision was filled by a goggles-wearing monstrosity. The boy had spiky black hair and wore a blue jacket lined in orange. "You're late! Who do you think you are keeping us waiting for so long!" Kakashi merely stared at the loud boy, not deeming an answer necessary.

A smooth, female voice responded instead. "Obito, you were late yourself, you're one to talk." Obito turned around immediately and whined, "But Rin, we waited for hours today and yesterday too! The least he can do is apologize!" The girl seemed to agree with that at least and they both turned to him expectantly. Only to find him ignoring them utterly and staring at their sensei, who was leaning up against the wall with his ankles and arms crossed, watching the exchange silently.

The moment Kakashi laid eyes on the man, he felt a great surge of emotion from within him that left him blinking. 'He died when I was young. I didn't know him well. Sorry 'bout that.' Naruto supplied wryly. Kakashi continued to stare at the man who bore such an uncanny resemblance to the one sealed in his stomach and an awkward silence descended upon the group.

Minato finally broke it, straightening up and saying, "Meet me at training ground seven in ten minutes." Without another word he disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The genin looked at each other and started running, earning them glares from the numerous ninja in the tower's hallways. -

When they arrived at the indicated training ground, they found their sensei sitting on the center-most of three posts and looking bored. "Sit down and introduce yourselves: your names, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, that sort of thing." He ordered, waving a hand at them. They sat in the grass in front of them, but Obito objected, "Minato-sensei, you should introduce yourself first!"

Instead of looking annoyed, however, the man seemed amused and complied. "My name is Namikaze Minato. I have many likes and few dislikes. I'll tell you my dream if it comes true, and as for hobbies, I have a few." Kakashi thought at Naruto, annoyed, 'Was he always this vague?'

He felt Naruto's voice float up from somewhere inside him in response. 'Hmm, don't know. Like I said, I didn't know him well.' He chuckled. 'Kakashi-sensei was always frustrating like that, though. Now I know where he got it from. But you should pay more attention. He's already evaluating you.'

Kakashi wondered while he listened to Rin talk about wanting to be a med-nin and liking to read if he would ever get used to the disconcerting way Naruto mentioned his future self so casually. Naruto seemed to pick up on his unease. 'Don't worry about the future or about me, just be yourself and try to appreciate your team.' Kakashi had his doubts about the easy words, but ignored them and dutifully answered when Minato called on him next.

"I'm Hatake Kakashi. I have few likes and many dislikes. My hobby is training and I don't feel like telling you my dream." Minato nodded and simply said, "Obito, you're next."

"I'm Uchiha Obito! I like my cousin Itachi-chan, my parents, Konoha, Ichiraku's ramen, Hokage-sama, my new team and making jokes. I dislike it when people think they're too good to respond when others are talking to them and when people keep secrets from their teammates. My hobby is cooking for my family. My dream is to be Hokage one day!" He finished cheerfully and Minato hopped down.

"Hmm, you're all interesting. Now we just need to see if you have what it takes to be ninja." Obito yelled, "We're already ninja, sensei!"

Minato continued as if Obito hadn't spoken. "Tomorrow morning I will test you with a survival exercise. If you fail, you'll be going back to the academy. Oh, and this test fails two out of three genin hopefuls, so prepare yourselves. We'll meet here at eight; don't be late. And a little suggestion, don't eat breakfast if you don't want to puke." With that Minato was gone and at least two of the kids were already feeling queasy.

The third was just feeling annoyed by the smug chuckling ringing inside his head. 'Obito really reminds me of myself when I was that age. I think this will be fun to watch.' Kakashi did his best to ignore the annoying man, instead finding a free training ground to train at for the rest of the day. If he was going to pass this test in spite of his weak teammates, he'd need to be at his best.-

R&R  
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	5. Obito's Character

Finally, a new ch. of Joys of Possession. Took me long enough, huh? This ch. is a little short, but I wanted to get it out. Planning to have another (longer) ch. out for this fic by the end of the month. For my most popular fic, I've neglected it too much. Anyway, here it is.

* * *

Disclaimed.

* * *

Obito hummed a cheery tune as he ran through the village. True, he was running late, but he was positive that Minato-sensei wouldn't punish him. Not because he was an Uchiha, but because Minato-sensei was nice and hadn't yelled at him once yet no matter how annoying he'd been.

He finally tore into training ground seven ten minutes late. Minato-sensei was leaning casually against a tree while Rin sat on the ground looking hungry. Kakashi, however, was glaring at him icily with his arms crossed.

A normal boy would have flinched at the look, but Obito had been on the receiving end of the Uchiha death glare for years and had become a deft hand at brushing it off.

"Sorry, a black cat crossed my path." Obito prevaricated while scratching the back of his head and grinning goofily. Kakashi twitched, Rin looked skeptical and Minato's expression didn't change at all. Obito wondered absently if they would call him on his lie.

Minato cleared his throat and stood upright, bringing something out of his pocket and catching the attention of his new students before the meeting devolved into a fight.

"Now that we're all here," he looked pointedly at Obito, "we can begin. Your mission for this test is to retrieve these bells from me. You have until noon to complete this mission. So...about three hours and forty-five minutes now." Again his eyes flicked over to Obito momentarily.

Even Rin was glaring at him now and Obito could see why. Didn't make him feel bad about being late, though.

Rin was the one to ask the obvious question, "But sensei, why are there only two bells?"

Minato smirked before dangling the bells in front of Obito's eyes. "If you can't at least get a bell, you'll be sent back to the academy."

The three genin candidates all had equally horrified expressions at that and Minato chuckled as he tied the bells to his belt, "We start when I say begin. If you want to get a bell, you'll have to come at me with the intent to kill."

He paused for a moment to see if they would speak, but when they just glared at him with determined faces he shrugged, "Begin."

Immediately they dispersed, all except Obito. "I'm the boy that's going to become the strongest ninja to ever live!" And with that clarification, he charged Minato head on.

Without going into the gritty (and embarrassing) details, he was defeated immediately and tossed carelessly into the river, where he coughed and sputtered as he was swept away by the rushing water.

When he finally made it back to others, he found Rin knocked out and dragged her behind some bushes where she would be safer before tentatively trying to find out how Kakashi's fight was going.

When he found them, he settled in to watch, wondering if maybe he could sneak a chance at getting the bells. That stuck up Kakashi would never live it down if he had to return to the academy for another year.

He found Kakashi fighting Minato-sensei with a surprisingly well-coordinated blend of ninjutsu and taijutsu. Even if he didn't want to admit it, the younger boy made fighting someone much larger than him look easy.

Still, Minato-sensei was holding off Kakashi without a lot of effort. Obito dubiously starting thinking up ways to snag a bell when the unexpected happened. Kakashi was distracted momentarily for no apparent reason and glanced in his direction.

The moment of inattention cost him though, Minato-sensei immediately used shunshin to get behind the boy and used the same move on Kakashi that he had on Obito. Obito tried to yell out a warning; competition or not, no male deserved to have that technique used on him. He was too late however and Kakashi went flying with a cry of pain.

As Kakashi sat upright with all the injured dignity of a drowned cat, Minato-sensei spoke in a deceptively mild voice.

"A moment of inattention in the field can cost your life. Never let the enemy get behind you."

* * *

Kakashi had never been so humiliated in his life. It wasn't just that he'd let himself get distracted when Naruto told him to work with Obito who was watching them fight. It wasn't even the fact that his sensei had punished him for the lapse by giving him a massive ass-poke.

It was that Naruto was currently laughing his own non-existent ass off so loudly that he couldn't hear himself think. As Kakashi pulled his injured pride around him like a cloak he wondered not for the first time why his future self would trust an idiot like this with his own body.

'You could have at least waited until I was clear to speak.' he thought at the man angrily.

Naruto sobered long enough to respond, 'Yah, we're gonna have to work on that.'

The man immediately started chuckling again as he continued, 'But I wish I'd seen your face, and before you complain any further, Kakashi-sensei did the same thing to me so it seems to be a bit of a tradition among Team Seven's jounin-sensei.'

Kakashi wanted to retort that he was not complaining, but held his tongue. It was best to ignore idiots, after all, no matter how hard it might be to do that when you have one in your head.

During this time Kakashi hadn't been sitting idle. He'd fled back into the safety of the foliage, knowing that Minato-sensei wouldn't follow. When he was finally clear he crouched down to plan.

Unfortunately, his planning consisted of silently acknowledging that it would be nearly impossible to get the bells from his sensei. This was a fact that he found extremely frustrating considering how hard he'd been training. It didn't help that Naruto was basically saying the same thing, shoving his weakness in his face.

As Kakashi continued to ignore the man in his head, Naruto sighed.

"Kakashi, pride has no place in the life of ninja. I'm not really one to talk, but I wouldn't be here if it weren't for the help of your older self. Sometimes, no matter how strong you are, you need to accept help from your teammates. And since your sensei is the future Yondaime Hokage this is definitely one of those times."

Kakashi blinked in shock, his sensei would be Yondaime?

He then frowned in consternation, "You shouldn't be telling me things like that, should you? Hokage-sama wouldn't approve."

Naruto chuckled, "Let me worry about that. Besides, as far as I'm concerned, you've earned it. You didn't ask for this, and regardless of your future self's decision, it's not fair for you to have to bear this burden.

Not having a choice...it's something I understand all too well. Believe me, if there was another way to save your father and everyone, I would have chosen that instead."

By the time Naruto finished speaking, his voice had taken on a tone of regret that made Kakashi want to cringe. The man's emotions were strong and Kakashi could almost feel them.

"But don't worry, I wont let anything happen to you. I'll help you in any way I can; you wont have to face all of this alone."

Kakashi snorted softly, "I don't know what you think you can do, but what do you mean by 'I understand'?"

"You'd be surprised." Naruto said cryptically and Kakashi was left to wonder which, if either, of his questions Naruto had answered.

* * *

Obito snuck away from his sensei after Kakashi lost. He had to find the stupid 'genius' and make him work with him, otherwise none of them would pass.

When Obito found Kakashi, though, he wondered what was wrong with the boy. He was staring off into space intently, his face contorting slightly from time to time under his mask. It was almost as if he was talking to himself silently.

Obito scrunched up his face; great, his new teammate was insane.

Kakashi heard a twig snap and spun around to find Obito staring at him with an odd expression on his face. Kakashi flushed beneath his mask at his inattention in the middle of a mission, he'd already been admonished by his sensei not to let that happen. He wouldn't let it happen a third time.

As he composed himself, Obito continued staring at him weirdly.

Kakashi finally snapped annoyance, "What do you want, dumb ass?"

Obito looked like he wanted to attack Kakashi for a second, but surprisingly regained control of himself.

"There's no way we'll defeat Minato-sensei by ourselves. He's a jounin, for cryin' out loud! We have to work together or we'll fail. Rin was already knocked out, we have to hurry!"

For once, the idiot was speaking sense. Not that Kakashi wanted to be on a team with him, but it would be better than no team at all.

"Alright. I'll distract him while you get the bells. Wait for my signal."

Obito nodded. Kakashi wasn't sure why, but he was certain Obito wouldn't keep both bells for himself and this plan was the only one that might succeed. He just hoped he was right.

As Kakashi attacked Minato-sensei with everything he had, Obito waited for the moment when he would be able to get close enough to grab the bells.

A minute later a shuriken that Kakashi threw at Minato was dodged and it embedded itself in the tree Obito was hiding behind. Showtime.

He crept around the tree and waited for the distraction. Minato's back was to him and he just needed to wait for exactly the right moment.

Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Kakashi was releasing a great deal of electricity from his hands and forced Minato-sensei to jump back to get more space to maneuver.

Unfortunately for him, Obito was already waiting at the spot he landed and he quickly grabbed the bells before his sensei could realize what had happened and then jumped back to a safe distance.

Or at least that's what he thought. But by the quickly masked amusement on his sensei's face, he suspected the man might have just let him take the bells.

Obito had the childish urge to stamp in irritation, but instead focused on the fact that _he had gotten the bells_. That thought in mind, he started doing a victory dance that left Kakashi's left eyebrow twitching while his sensei looked at him with bemusement.

That was when he noticed that they weren't alone in the clearing. Another Minato-sensei had entered carrying an unconscious Rin and looked extremely unamused. Just as quickly as his cheer had come, it disappeared.

The clone set Rin down before lightly tapping her on the cheek until she started to wake up. She opened her eyes to see her sensei standing over her before he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Rin let out an undignified squeak and looked around. When she saw her team looking at her she scrambled to stand and only then noticed that Obito had the bells. She sent a shocked look in Kakashi's direction, who merely shrugged.

Minato-sensei once again cleared his throat to get their attention.

Looking at Obito he asked calmly, "So, Obito, who are you going to give your second bell to?"

Obito gulped as a sinking sensation made itself felt in his gut, Rin was looking at him with a dumb-founded expression, probably still wondering how he was able to get the bells, while Kakashi just cocked an eyebrow at him as if to say 'Who helped you?'

He didn't know what to do, Kakashi had earned it, but it somehow felt wrong to leave Rin out. She may have been knocked out, but that could have happened to him too. Besides, Rin was smart and had done better in the academy.

She was also talented at medical ninjutsu and he knew how important becoming a ninja medic was to her after her father died in the field from a simple poison that most medics could have made an antidote for.

If he killed her dream, could he live with himself? She always worked hard and probably deserved it more than him, anyway. His eyes prickled uncomfortably and he pulled his goggles over his eyes to keep his team from noticing.

He sighed and put a bright smile on his face.

"Think fast!"

Rin and Kakashi held out their hands reflexively to catch the bells that had been thrown to them. Kakashi's face betrayed nothing of his surprise, but Rin's eyes were wide.

"I can't wait to see the look on sensei's face when he realizes he has to put up with me for another year! You better be ready to get your ass kicked when I come back, Kakashi!"

Kakashi snorted and shook his head, but before he could retort, Minato interrupted.

"That wont be necessary, Obito. You pass."

Rin and Kakashi looked at him in surprise and Rin asked, "Why, sensei?"

"Because the most important qualities for a ninja are being able to work with their teammates and sacrifice their own interest for their team. Obito demonstrated both of those qualities.

Those that make it onto a genin team are being trained to be the military leaders of Konoha's ninja corps. What do you think happens to those that can't become genin? Their skills don't go to waste. They're fast-tracked into a harsh training course to see if they can cut it as ANBU. ANBU often work individually, so leadership capability and teamwork aren't as important.

But officers must be able to command and coordinate large groups. They have to put the well-being of their team first and understand the value of teamwork. Konoha's superior teamwork is what has allowed us to survive the last two wars and the only thing keeping us from losing this one.

We have fewer ninja than our enemies and so throwing away lives at the drop of a hat for a mission will only result in our eventual defeat. Mission success is vital, but sacrificing an entire team for a mission that can't be completed is only a waste of resources."

Minato paused and looked at Kakashi for a moment.

"Those are the sorts of choices that you will eventually have to make."

He paused again before continuing, "Obito gave you both bells, so you pass as well. Meet me at the Hokage tower tomorrow at 0800 for your first mission."

With that he disappeared, leaving a team of astonished ninja. Obito was the first to respond, jumping for joy and doing cartwheels in the grass. Rin looked slightly dazed still and Kakashi looked thoughtful.

He was pretty sure that Minato had been subtly referring to his father. It seemed that there were those in the ninja corps who supported his father's decision, although Sakumo hadn't seemed to be aware of that fact when he'd tried to kill himself.

Still, Minato-sensei had a point. Kakashi would have to decide for himself what was right. He'd always believed that the rules and regulations of ninja existed for good reason, but maybe there was more to it than that.

Obito yelled that they should all go for ramen, but Kakashi just walked off, intent on informing his father that he'd passed his genin exam. In the process he missed the slightly crest-fallen look on Obito's face, while Rin excused herself, saying apologetically that her mother was expecting her.

Obito slowly ambled home, not looking forward to the unenthusiastic greeting that awaited him. After all, to his family him becoming a genin just meant that he had still not activated his sharingan. Considering that he was the only heir to the head of the Uchiha branch family, that was considered a disgrace. Hopefully his father wouldn't be home yet.

* * *

Kakashi entered his house quietly, wondering whether or not his father was home.

Naruto piped up unexpectedly, "For a prodigy, you're surprisingly unobservant."

Kakashi frowned in annoyance before reluctantly asking, "What do you mean?"

"Just that there may be more to your teammates than you think."

Kakashi was getting frustrated with Naruto's tendency towards being cryptic, but figured that the best solution was to ignore him.

So he did just that, walking into the kitchen to find his father silently gathering ingredients to make dinner. That was the unsettling thing about sharing a home with one of Konoha's greatest shinobi; he typically had no clue whether his father was home or what he was doing.

When he was younger, after his mother died, his father had accidentally surprised Kakashi practically every other day. This had the unintended effect of teaching Kakashi to remain aware of his surroundings at all times.

Sakumo smiled down at his young son.

"How did your real genin test go? Did you pass?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Was it the bell test? What did you think of it?"

Kakashi thought for a moment before replying, "It was...interesting."

Sakumo seemed satisfied by this response and told him to go wash up for dinner.

"Oh and Kakashi."

Kakashi turned to wait for his father to speak.

"Next time you have a day free from team training and missions, there's a jutsu I want to teach you."

With that the White Fang turned back to cooking and Kakashi walked towards the bathroom with a smile under his mask.

* * *

Anyone confused about the ages, it's like this: Kakashi is 7, Obito and Rin are 9. In canon, Kakashi graduated at five, in this fic the sandaime doesn't let him graduate until seven.

R&R


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